Twas not only Bob Geldof who hates Monday’s: “Floyd Landis will know the result of the tests on his B sample by Monday night. The Phonak rider’s A sample, given during the 17th stage of the Tour de France, was revealed to have tested positive for testosterone on Thursday.”The most expensive apartment on the market in NYC? On Fifth Avenue --$70 million Pierre Penthouse New York, N.Y…..Topping off one of New York's most luxurious hotels, this triplex includes the Pierre's original ballroom--now a grand salon with 20-foot-high French doors offering views over the city. Owned by investor and writer Martin Zweig, the spread has a paneled library, wine cellar, black marble staircase and marble baths…. 07/28 Momentum grows for the global campaign against Doctor Dan & his chamber! One might be glad if the stocks and shares in hypoxico were not purchased.
``Banning them would create the same situation for all,'' Sarah Lewis -- hm, not sure on this one as it would be mighty hard to prove who is and who is not using one, and it is well known how athletes love to fess us. Seems like the dum-dum idea to waste the funds.
Well the Prison Training Group is going well, Reggie is waiting for a shot in the knee, Another guy is down to two cigarettes per day from being a chain smoker, 90% of the troop managed 11-laps on Tuesday as a warm up to Thursday’s speed session. Pablo’s friend Robert is now ‘available’ to come out for sessions, Jessica is MIA…Those running Quad Bix --
Gilbert Okari-Kenya
John Korir-Kenya
Meb Keflezighi-USA
Evans Cheruiyot-Kenya
William Chebon-Kenya
Samuel Rongo-Kenya
Lawrence Kiprotich-Kenya
John Kibowen-Kenya Mohamed Fadil-Morocco & women -- Nuta Olaru-Romania
Susan Chepkemei-Kenya
Jemima Jelagat-Kenya
Masako Chiba-Japan
Kathy Butler-Great Britain
Luminita Talpos-Romania
Marla Runyan-USA. My money is on Jemima.Here’s a great story from Keith, who is over in Northern Ireland: “I visited the Sirikwa Primary school in Eldoret and distributed 50 soccer jerseys from the George Best Foundation.
“After he battled alcoholism for a long period of his life George passed away
in November of 2005. The public response to his death was over whelming for
the family circle. As a mark of respect many soccer supporters left soccer
jerseys at the home of his father, the City Hall in Belfast and at the
Stormont Building where the funeral service took place.
“After the funeral George's sister realised that something positive could be
done with all the donated soccer jerseys. As George was always reknowned as
being very thoughtful and for never refusing an autograph the idea of
distributing the jerseys to needy children was conceived. I distributed the jerseys at Noah Ngeny's former school and now I have a fantastic link in order to help contribute to their library.
“Even in his death George is bringing pleasure to people's lives through the
medium of sport. Thanks Keith
“Floyd Landis' stunning Tour de France victory just four days earlier was thrown into question Thursday when his team said he tested positive for high levels of testosterone during the race. Floyd Landis' initial sampling came back positive. If he tests positive with the backup sample, he would then be considered
guilty of using steroids.”Further--“Asked if he had a message to deliver about doping after being crowned king of cycling, Landis had said: "In this sport, we proved that more than any sport we try to prevent doping and try to solve the problem.” Julia Stamps is running the San Fran marathon this year, as the fave to be the winner -- hope she has a great race. Hope it is cool out there. Pierre the Pusher is driving off to Nova Scotia from NYC, “Did you look at the map first?” That is a heck of a distance to do!At the gym: I got, what can only be called, bended. I was lying there just about to read Oprah (the magazine) when a PT came across and decided to see how far they could, literally, push me…..It is no wonder they never get me to enroll in any of the classes there -- torture.
Not many things ever feel good in the ‘trying to gain flexibility department’. Later I get out of the shower and this guy is walking off with my towel, so I cal him on it, and replies, “Well somebody took mine.” Can’t argue with that logic can you, so I brushed it off and for the next five minutes the guy is pestering me trying to justify himself, big deal five strides away was a pile of new ones -- next time I think I will ignore it if it happens again...
Out in the park -- every one was out there; In fact the Flyers Thursday group had so many familiar faces that I went towards them instead of the Thursday night Urban group -- The Harriers were out waiting for a late comer, Douglas had changed the workout due to the immense mobs in the park.
Kevin (16:45), Chucky China (18:40), and Dan were out for a run - Last night’s Pizza race in NJ was not as fast as had been rumored. Anil (who was also out running) was glad just to be running a race again… Tony the CPTC coach has just bought a jaguar X-type, he’s off to Florida for a short break from the smoke. Stopnchat came by. Mary was leading the Urb group as Alvaro got lost and ran off course. Will has lost 10-lbs, “You’ve got me running all these miles now, I am like a crazy man!” Welcome to the club. Senor Ramon came by with the Nike group.. Dr Dan managed a few hill repeats running like a lion, he’s on the way back.
07/26
Bad Soy: Soi Edwin Cheruiyot KEN 13:18.35 did not do the Biz in Stockholm, he seems to be having a very up and down season.Urban asks, “Is this event The USA 5000m champs in Crystal Palace?”
"Low blood levels of two anti-inflammatory proteins could be key to chronic pain, researchers report.” I rushed out and bought some bagels - 10grams of protein each, ahd five and 50-grams is nothing to shake a twig at.
Róisín McGettigan Runs 9.32.04 in Heusden - Breaks Irish Steeplechase Record...(
Eight of the top ten finishers in that race set personal bests including three national records).Okay, step two for Doctor Dan, looks like he is going to have to lose his
Chamber!
“But soon, the altitude tents and rooms may be banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, or WADA. The agency’s ethics panel recently determined that the tents and rooms violated “the spirit of sport.”
Meanwhile the living legend Maria Mutola (1:58.72) gets another win in Helsinki, and in the Women’s 10,000 --
1 2 Kayoko Fukushi
Japan 31.00,64 holds national records for 3000m and 5000m
2 1 Benita Johnson
Australia 31.14,80
3 15 Kara Goucher
USA 31.17,12
4 7 Jen Rhines
USA 31.24,16
5 6 Katie McGregor
USA 31.32,17
6 11 Sylvia Kibet
Kenya 31.39,34 (Sleepy Sylvia road show continues!! She has been racing non stop for a while now, and this is defo on tired legs, but fab regardless…
7 4 Lucy Wangui
Kenya 31.48,68
8 10 Sara Slattery
USA 31.57,94
Locust bean gum? Could not believe that that was in my cottgae cheese.In the park for the workout -- Alice, who is now on the schedule is looking better and better each week.. The same can not be said for the Russian Rocket (who now drives a Honda). The Rocket and his sizable belly looks like double the shadow he was five years ago… I remember the last sessions I did, and I think some of them were with him when he was motivated -- well at least he is still moving. No come backs on the horizon, in fact he wants to go and play golf at the Hamptons on Friday. I told him, I may not be able to run so well anymore, but there is no way I am turning to golf. Alec who is re-inviting me out to his house again on the Long Island coast -- rumor has it the house reveals that this guy is either a) a capitalist with a trust fund, b) a nephew of the Bush family, or c) a bank robber, Kieran who powered with good strength from the start to the finish., Erin who really pushed and gave it her all for the first 33-minutes of the workout, it was an honorable fizzle in the last few minutes.
Andrew the sleeping weapon who came alive after a few warm up sprints, Kirsten looking like a snappy miler, Jamie saving her fifth gear for whenever she chose to use it, Jules the powerhouse won the handicap sprint again -- these Ozzies, R2 and her nano, Michelle twisted a knee, and still pushed on, Centuryman in his green Maroc togs, Shawn sober although she did send out warning signals of an all night last night party, Rick (the only one to volunteer to do the double bonus even though it was an additional mile), John “I got one hour sleep last night” and Chris, who will be joining in next week we hope.
Thanks to Zoomalong Bakoulis, NYC’s winningest female runner for help for Shoe4Africa -- mucho appreciated!07/26
Shoe4africa thanks to Jim B. from Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP for sending shoes to Tanzania.The weird and the wonderful….“I think this is what they're looking for: the feeling that you're living life for real," runner Pranab Vladovic said of himself and 13 other athletes now competing in the tenth annual Self-Transcendence 3,100 Mile Race in Jamaica, Queens.-- Nuts, crackers! Looking for? Well if they are running round the same block for two moths they are going to see a lot of the same thing.Next year will be the XC Champs of Champs -- in Kenya. Due to the weather the races will be held in the afternoon, but anyone who has ever ran in Mombassa will know you are going to suffer regardless of the time! "Holding the events in the morning would have been too hard on athletes, hence rescheduling them for the afternoon when the humidity is cool.” Said Mr. Kiplagat, the Head of KAA. I have ran in Mombassa, but in the morning and it as like breathing in hot pea soup (slight exag. as I have never actually breathed...)At Stockholm --stadium record, 8:24.67 for Meseret Mizuno Defar in the women’s 3000. Kenenista wins the 1500m.. Ethiopia doing well…. What’s new.It has cooled off somewhat in NYC, I gave the Flyers an easy session last night because I thought it was going to hot; I felt robbed. They sauntered through the session like it was a picnic on the banks of the Seine -- 07/25 Jamaica's Asafa Powell is ready to take on Justin Gatlin in a 100m showdown whenever and wherever. Probably until he himself does not feel 100%The legend talks…
"I'll be 38 in 2012, but Carlos Lopez won the 1984 marathon gold at 38." And she continues, “It has to be inbuilt in an athlete to have desire and be willing to make sacrifices …” Paula, who I have no doubt could take the next two gold’s in the Olympics.Soccer talk, "He offered me a house, a private jet and more money, but money and success doesn't come into it," Crespo said.
"Italy is my natural environment, it's where I'll live when I retire and it's the best place to play." He wants to leave Chelsea -- Crespo is not even the Haile of running -- Does one single runner have a private jet??The Golden City:
Stockholm, Sweden - Twenty world season leaders will show up at the Stockholm Olympic Stadium In the women’s 3000m, Olympic 5000m champion Meseret Defar goes for the stadium record of 8:40.76 to win a diamond. Soi for the men’s 5k we think is the man for the money, we’ll guess 12:54.
So yesterday I ended up in a hypobaric(?) chamber of all places. Terry said pop in for 20-minutes, so I did. They zipped me up and off I went to Mount Everest. I ended up staying ‘up’ there for 45-minutes. So I get out and ask, “When do I get my mega boost?” Terry replies, “In about two hours you’ll get a hit.” Oh no, that coincided with lunch, and true enough I ate like an elephant!
Earlier I had been for a ‘Vibe’ on the Power Plate and had my teeth rattled; both Denise & Michael, and Doctor Dan now have the machines where you can go and stand in one spot and be ‘Vibed.’
It was quite a morning. I felt like a soda can ready to explode. I bumped into Salad Girl in the Supit and she asks, “Who’s Itchy Tooth? Does she exist? Are there girls really 122-lbs?” So I said, ‘I thought you did not read my page??’ To which came the perennial answer one hears, ’Oh I just happened to come across it…’
Wharf to Wharf -- 1. Ridouane Harroufi, MAR 27:10
2. Julius Kiptoo, KEN 27:
3. Mohamed Fadil, MAR 27:13
4. James Koskei, KEN 27:20
5. Alene Emere Reta, ETH 27:24 of the local WSX
1. Jemima Jelagat, KEN 31:07
2. Tatyana Chulakh, RUS 31:39 &
3. Alemtsehay Misganaw, ETH 32:12 of WTC
Richard K’s runner, Lena Gavelin, 74, SWE won the Victorialoppet in 30:47 with Japhet Kipkorir Kipchirchir, 81, KEN 26:17 taking the men’s race. This is a cool race run in the evening on an isle called Oland in the South of Sweden. I have run the race twice and ran 26-minutes both times back in the good old days ‘93 & ‘94 -- the race is a gravel road 9km race. The King and his Princesses attend the race, and tis indeed named after one of the princesses who used to deal out the prizes.
07/24 Leppin Sports Products support Shoe4Africa! In a new initiative Leppin (Europe’s answer to Powerbar/Gatorade) are promoting Shoe4Africa on their Labels and are printing Posters.
Guess the name of the Superstar leading this 10,000m, first correct answer wins a prize of a singlet (not this one) from the said athlete.
Starbucks tells us (about Sleepy Sylvia), “She'll go to the African Championships next month.“ Olympic 3,000m steeplechase bronze medallist Paul Kipsiele Koech, has also been included in the Kenya team to the African Championships in Mauritius next month. Should be a great champs.This link from Michael & Denise. Here featured in the NY Post with their Vibration Machine.
French Champs -- Good to see Virginie is still up there, 2'00''71 ESSAROKH Latifa Sco Ste-marguerite Marseille #2 2'02''01 FOUQUET Virginie Amiens Uc & winning the 1500m --3’40''79 TAHRI Bouabdellah Athletisme Metz Metropole another Le Abuquerque runner.TGV writes, “Last week my older brother hit 49. I'll be 46 all too soon. 50 is just around the corner YIKES How did this happen?. It felt like yesterday I was 30 something living on E 56th St no kids and not a care in the world. SHIT!!!! Time flies and there's no slowing it down.” True enough.
At the races; I was passing through the park on Saturday morning and happened to watch the Run for the Parks race en route to the Hilton via Starbucks, and Starbucks via Central Park on a round trip… The race highlight was the battle of the Over 70’s with The Chairman George just losing out to Mr Alfred Finger in a National Class battle.. Both men taking it to the fumes.
Not to be outdone we hear from Blighty that “53-yr old Martin Rees runs 15:26 for a 5k over in Britain.” People are not slowing down as they once did. We saw the ever smiley and super fast Heather Gardiner of the NY Running Company later at Columbus Circle -- not surprising as she had just won the race. A Canadian who lives in Connecticut and always features in the Tri state races.
More in Brit from Urban,
“MoFa 13:09.40 in Heusdon. This is a bit of a freak result I have to admit.
2nd in the all time list. Two weeks ago he struggled with a 13:49 not
being able to break 13:40 the whole year. De La Ossa is supposed to run Berlin Marathon.3000m Steeple Women “ Also in that meet in the Steeple --1 92 KIPTUM JERUTO 81 KEN 9:26.79 Nat Rec for Kenya.
But going back to NYC the women’s 70-yr+ age group was outstanding too for the 4-miler #1Ginette Bedard 72 NY 31:37 finally has someone chasing her! #2 Yoshiko Takahashi 70 NY 32:44 I was talking to Ginette on the finishing line and she says she is training very well right now with her sights on the ING NYC in the fall in a world record attempt.
On the world record talk The Run Doc (the NYRR’s official Doctor) is going to run the Philadelphia Distance Classic 2007 with the former world record holder Steve Jones.
On Steve Jones -- How much water did he drink when running 2:07:13? The answer is one small cup.
Floyd Landis wins the Tour de France. Amazing for America to have the last Eight tour wins! Who would have thunkit?In an article in the Sunday NY Times about the track closure of 6th ST --“But according to Carli Smith, a department spokeswoman, the closing of the track is necessary as part of a $72 million renovation to the East River esplanade and sea wall, which began last year. The track must be closed now, she said, because the sea wall attached to the track requires repair and the minimum air temperature required to lay new asphalt on the track is 65 degrees.
“These months are absolutely critical for us to put in the asphalt,” Ms. Smith said, noting that the track would be topped with a high-tech surface from Mondo, an Italian company manufacturer whose tracks have been used in the Olympics.”
**Number one; according to sources in the construction this is totally inaccurate, there is an agent that can be added to the asphalt that does not require 65-degree weather, and secondly place your bets on when they start work! The track is indeed closed, and planks of wood thrown over the lanes to stop runners using it; but no work has begun on the track in the first five days and my bet is that in the NEXT month nothing will be done, if not TWO months -- and that was my point. Why not leave it open until you are ready to start work? And yes, 57-yrs old was a slight exaggeration.
“Generally speaking, a 1/2-cup serving of regular ice cream has about 270 calories and 18 grams of fat…
And that brings us to our weekly check up with Itchy Tooth; “And itchy teeth is inching down on the scale! Not a full pound but solidly into the 122 range at 122.6 avg for the week and really feeling it in the clothes now. Should put me at decent fighting weight for the big european race in august! Still no brie though. Sadness.”
Devon of CPTC is on her way to Canada on a bicycle no less, “Going to be painful, I have not done any practicing for this trip…” Does not sound like the words of a coach! 07/21
In Liege, Belgium -- Sleepy Sylvia continues to Rock & Roll!!!
5000m Women
Heat:1
1 76 CHERUIYOT VIVIAN 83 KEN 15:00.27 PB
2 89 TUFA MESTAWET 83 ETH 15:02.98
3 86 SELSOULI ALAOUI MARIEM 84 MAR 15:04.46 PB
4 92 KIBET SYLVIA KEN 15:07.90
Looking into Cuba I found, “The Union Jack, the national flag and one of the most potent symbols of the United Kingdom, is 400 years old in 2006. And Iceland and Cuba established diplomatic relations in 1956. The Permanent Mission of Iceland to the United Nations acts as the Icelandic Embassy to Cuba. Hm, I thought the British Flag was called The Butcher‘s Apron, not the Union Jack.
“Zinedine Zidane has been banned for three games and fined £3,260 for head-butting Italy's Marco Materazzi during the World Cup final.” Pretty dumb as he is retired, and ’Materazzi was suspended for two games and fined £2,170 for provoking Zidane.’ Even more ridiculous, as if every player on the field is an angel and is not taunting the other players…
Also in the soccer news the Boca Juniors manager Alfio Basile has been handed the chance to become Argentina coach for a second time… well it just so happens that the book I am reading at the moment is called A Prisoner with no Name by Jacobo Timerman, a Nobel Prize winning Book…. Well Jacobo’s son, Javier, is one of my athletes and he told me that one day he saw Basile in a café in Argentina, and he had just bought a book chronicling the Argentine History of Soccer that had a picture of Basile as a Soccer player back in his youth, so Javier sent his son over to get the book signed. Well the Son was shy so Javier when across and Basile asked the name of the son and when he told the surname Basile said, “I used to see your father each week, we would meet and chat and drink coffee together…” Small world.
From Urban in Britain, “Hey! Very hot right now in London, NYC going through a heat wave too.
I think it was even warmer than Nairobi. Jamal, the racing machine, did
a 16:08 yesterday on the track in 33C or something, jeez. Too hot for
me. Sunday he came 4th in the 10k, 34:04. The local S4A team is
slowing having an impact on the scene J” Cool thanks!Speaking of Shoe4Africa I found this pic on TGV’s site!! Where did he get it from I have not a clue! And what the box thing is I do not know.
Anyway the big news yesterday in running was the signing of Paul Tergat & Catherine Ndereba for the New York Half at the end of August! Two of the absolute biggest names in the sport coming to the streets to run like demons for the $10,000 prize. Who else will be on the line??
Also check out Runner‘s World Online Today for HAPPY BIRTHDAY 105 to the amazing Al Gordon!!
This week end in the park the race is on Saturday -- Run for Central Park four miler race, and it will be a good event to get some fast runningin, as the field will not be super packed as the other races have been recently.
The next big race is the following Saturday when the Mets 5k is a NYRR POints' Race, and is sold out with 2500 entrants already signed up -- so popular is the sport of running in New York City right now, shocking.
07/20
One of the most beautiful countries in the world, not often explored. Thanks to Idris for sending in this link.
“Tomorrow night is the 19th annual 5-mile Sugar Bowl race which is put on by our running club, L Street. Since 2001, the race has been attended by 100's of NYC firefighters. I hope there are no emergencies in your City Thursday or Friday.
Stay cool and dry, Eric.” Thanks Eric, my good buddy in Boston, whom I always visit when I am up there - whose entire family have ran Boston a few times.
“FALMOUTH, Mass –Olympic silver medalist and four-time Boston Marathon champion, Catherine Ndereba will compete for her fourth win at the Falmouth Road Race on Aug. 13. She will be joined on the starting line by defending men's champion and two-time Falmouth winner, Gilbert Okari who has been tearing up the running circuit this summer.”NYRR -- Are you out of the marathon? Go to www.nyrr.org and look at the way you can run:
All of the funds raised through these guaranteed entries, less any applicable credit card fees, will be distributed by NYRR to the following organizations:
The Armory Foundation - 30.5%
USA Track & Field, Inc. to support its USA Distance Project - 23%
Central Park Conservancy - 15.5%
The Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City, for the benefit of Van Cortlandt Park - 8%
Achilles Track Club - 7% The remaining 16% will be retained by NYRR to use in connection with activities in support of its tax-exempt mission." All great causes!So track became uptown, and to be honest this group rocked Central Park like Rebels; I am in there so often but when they took off on the first intervals I was “wow, don’t see a group powering like that often here!” Super impressive! Commander Kevin flying well, Erin chasing at the front and making people ask, “Who is she?” Doug stepping up a level as he should be doing, John from SRZ surprising everyone, ‘cept perhaps himself, and Chris doing awesome on his first night at the front o’ the fire. Birthday Boy Alec looked back on the fitness line and off the slugger list, Jules from BrisVegas was looking like goals are going to be met, Tom fighting well hanging onto Michelle who was not looking herself tonight. Rick was back from juggling the newborn, looking after the other born, and the job, and the injury, and coping fine!
Mary all in black and running like Devil, then Kirsten flying with Jamie looking silky smooth, and Anil having it rough but hanging. Rebecca proving her grit and running a good 10% better than last week, Shawn & Cruiser working well together. ChuckyChina leading something, and as usual at his steady geared pace. Ben did not seem to be one iota more tired at the end than at the start, and Kiernan teaching the work ethic and pushing well.. Then this guy comes up and starts talking and low and behold he is from Sweden, so we were chatting and his club mate is now the trainer of my old team, Stockholm Sparvagen -- he’s moving here in September so he’ll be training with us…
Anyway I had a nice time also in the park talking to Meskerem who you can see here in action below as the runners were.. running-- she is quite a zippy runner herself. She is telling me to practice my Enjira rolling. All on a night in Central Park.
07/19 The 6th ST track is now closed, locked up, and barreled. Training tonight will be at 90th ST & 5th Ave.Thanks, and a BIG thanks to New Balance who have donated nearly One Thousand Pairs of new running shoes to my latest cause! Trying to get Shoes for the Achilles Track Club’s race in Central Park on August the 6th! I was thinking I would be able to get a few pairs donated, but never dreamed on 968 -- so thank you!!Another Thanks to Urban Athletics of the Madison Avenue & World Financial Center for donating new shoes for my Prison rehab Training Group, Chubby is giving each athlete on the program a new pair of shoes! Not only that but MIZUNO gave them all new singlets, Chubby came in with shorts and tops. We got them caps and socks and also a bag of women’s clothes from MCP.In the mailbag, “Here some impression from the German-relay its not a race, its charity run through germany, I like it, because for some people, like me is the border and the country since 1989 bigger than ever! sorry but we have no English version. Thanks Toby from Germany. And here he is.Good article in the times concerning heat and running. I met Dave Martin in Boston this year, a nice chap.they omitted would be a double winner-- One of the probs of oversight with Grants over in Britain!The Neue Galerie, on 86th, is charging a whopping $50 admission to see its latest exhibit!! The same amount as the 92nd ST Y is charging to see a jazz concert of unknown Jazz artists.. What is happening to the city?? I went to Neue to take coffee there yesterday and saw the announcement -- Jeez! I am going to take there with Bill Staab who is a member and ask him to complain to everyone about it, ridiculous.
Anyway whilst I am still thanking New Balance I would also like to thank Joel Bunei over in Kenya who is doing the translating work for me for the AIDS stuff. Further news -- the race in September in Kisii is looking to be over subscribed -- Numbers are escalating way past the initial 500 we though we‘d get, the latest forecast is 1500 !
Sixth Annual B.A.A. Half Marathon Registration Opens Wednesday. 4,500-runner field expected to fill quickly. BOSTON, MA -- Online registration for the sixth annual B.A.A. Half Marathon presented by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute opens Wednesday, July 19 at
www.baa.org. The event has grown steadily since its inception in 2001 when
3,375 runners entered. With the 2006 field limited to 4,500 entrants, the
race will fill within a few weeks.
I electrocuted myself yesterday -- I was making coffee and holding the perculator (metal) as I plugged the power in I got a massive arm numbing, left arm, and right leg (strangely) jolt that felt like a ride on the Hulk’s stim machine and thought, “Shoot.” Other great news -- the printers sent me my postcards for S4A and forgot to send the envelopes, so I phoned up, “Yes Sir, they take a longer time to print.” Than the custom made postcards? “Yes Sir.” What kind of special white envelopes are these? “They are white standard Sir.” Then what part is the custom printing part? “That is your postcards.” Yes, I have received those. “Exactly Sir.” Exactly what? “That it takes a longer time.” For the envelopes to come. “No Sir, they will come first.” Which is my point; they have not. “Ah Sir, then we have a problem. Can I put you on hold?”Dominique A La Releve is the track of the night.. But as the world boils…. You’ve gotta love NYC. So the Flyers had their workout and as the Heat Index was nearing 100 I made it into my famous zip code run (making everyone run in groups with their Zip code and talk for the first mile to make new training group friends -- did I mention there are over 750 members in this club and the big sentence is, “Oh you are in the club too?”)…. Anyway at 8pm it was the Philharmonic in the park and I had a meeting with Mary Bryant about the new Team For Life War Veterans initiative that we are doing… So Mary is late, so I sit down and start talking to this couple, and low and behold one of them is the Senior Vice President for a Health & Philanthropy.. Helping small non for profits who have work to do with women and AIDS. Serendipitious? We hope so! Not nearly as much as the meeting last week with a power mover president of one huge company who happened to be sitting behind me when I was talking.. That is in the mix right now…. As I say, only possible in NYC.07/18
111th Swedish Athletics Championships & on her home track at Solluntuna Kajsa Bergqvist of Tureberg FK leaps a world leading 2.04m. The Swedish Championships were at this venue in 1995 also, I remember the track is Blue rubber tartan -- I did the 10,000/5,000m double; the 10,000 I felt awful but hung on for 6th which was good as the club I ran for gave money for the top 6th placings at the national champs, but then I rebounded with a silver in the 5000m losing to a guy called Bjarne Thysell who ran a great race -- he started with a 63, and passed the 800m in 2:07. I made a stupid mistake of going past him halfway through the race when it became a two person event and he sat behind me for a mile getting his energies back, then 600m to go he kicked like a wild donkey and made a gap and I was toast…
The next night was the Stockholm Games in the Stadion (my home track off Valhallavagen) and I ran the 3000m (Bjarne too), but this time I kicked him from 300m out (the tactic I should have used in the championships). Andrew Sambu, who ran the 1500m a couple of years earlier at the Olympics for Tanzania won the race in 7:55, second was another African whose name I forgot, then I got third.. Those were the days when we raced tough…. Following an intense period of hard training with no racing. So I had a quick skim of the results, the 10,000m winning time this year, 30:22, would not have made the top ten back in 1995... But Swedish Hopping, Jumping, and field events are continuing to be world class.
Aide de Dieu les morts -- that is my quote for July.“Fort Collins, CO is the best place to live in America, according to the editors of MONEY Magazine. Why? Great schools, low crime and a fantastic outdoors lifestyle.” NYC did not make the top ten, in fact the closest was Fairfield CT.Congrats to Rick P of the Flyers who became father#2 to a boy this time -- little Rocco.Out at Teterboro Airport (flat it is!!) 5km: 1. Demesse Girma, 23, New York, NY (ETH) 14:38
2. Alene Emere Reta, 24, New York, NY (ETH) 14:43
3. Worku Beyi, 19, Bronx, NY (ETH) 14:51
4. Kassahun Kabiso, 22, Bronx, NY (ETH) 15:05 W1. Teraza Yohannes, 24, New York, NY (ETH) 17:44
2. Alemegna Desta, 25, New York, NY 18:00
3. Zofia Wieciorkowska, 43, Stratford, CT (POL) 18:29 From Urban, “Euro trails last weekend. John The Bull's man Pete Riley won the 5k, Farah and
McCormick slept a bit early on while Riley moved away. Riley runs the thon in
Gothenburg. Farah and McCormick possibly in the 5k. Jo Pavey lapped the
European Junior champ Emilty Pidgeon in the 5k. Some fast times in the Spanish trials by De La Ossa, 27:50, fastest European
time. www.rfea.es” Thanks Urb.07/17 I am happy that my cousin from Rackajack is coming to New York next month for a brief visit. His name is Kristinn Hrafnsson and he is a newsman over on the Iceplanet. In fact he used to live here, half a mile from me on 80th ST. A cool character if ever there was one -- So I am in Iceland and I go to the Bar with an Aunt called Sigga and I am complaining about having to pay $10 for a beer and the is a poster on the door for a race, so I say to Kristinn later that night, “Hey, I’ll race you for a beer in that race.” He says, “Why the heck not.” Neither of us were real runners at this stage, I had just started jogging.
In fact I had just stopped smoking a couple of months before and he was in the fumes of trying to quit. So the race comes, the Reykjavik 7km run in conjunction with the Marathon. To cut a long story I won the race, got a Nike Contract on the finishing line, decide I liked running, and we went out for a beer -- and there were various news articles about the race in the papers, but this was the article about the beer that somehow came out in a political paper. Anyway I put a red star there as the paper was a commie paper.
Anyway the story does not end there but.
Anyway this week end I went to Via Quadronno which has the best coffee on the square of 70-73 Mad to Fifth Ave, Mexican at La Cocuna on West 85th, plain vegetables tasted plain, but….Then I went out to Westchester to be a guest at the place of Alfred’s who was telling about some of his investments he made; like a mine, a farm in Oklahoma and the horse deal -- He wanted to get into horses, so he a couple of friends did so, then the question whether to go breeding or racing, so they went for breeding, his friend went owning a race horse (more risk one may presume), well he got a still born, and two foals and broke even, and the friend got Gato Del Sol who ended up winning the Kentucky Derby. He is now into land, but is having problems with zoning. All this whilst sipping beers poolside on a sunny afternoon. I also went to Madison at 62nd to look at where the townhouse used to be…. Wow.
I went for coffee and bagels at the SC‘s - long time no see, so it was nice to catch up with them. The bagels from their fav bagelry on 98th & Broadway were superb as usual. Lenny‘s Bagels.
In the mailbag, Hi Toby,
I found your diary, and I have to say it's very great! Congratulation.
Now I have three pair of running shoes Sz US 11 in very good condition
and like to send them to Africa. Which address is the best?
Thank you very much and
all the best from germany/berlin
from another
Toby” Thanks Toby -- You rock!
“Brooks Mogo Day Saturday, July 23rd. Brooks introduces their new cushioning system, first in the New Trance Shoe. There will be give aways and plenty of The New Trances to try on and test run.”
“Farida was selected as the Outstanding Sports women of the months of June. This is the award given to the Monthly most successful Sportsman/Woman of the Month, and she beat all representative from other Sports.” Farida is a girl that Shoe4Africa sponsors!“Paul Tergat of Kenya, the World record holder for the Marathon, who captured the ING New York City Marathon title last year in the closest finish in race history, and surprise winner of the women’s race Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia will return to the 2006 race on Sunday 5 November to defend their titles…” super good news.And in Rome… W5000-
Dibaba Tirunesh ETH 14:52.37 20 2 Defar Meseret ETH 14:53.51 16 3 Bati Gelete Burika ETH 14:54.15 14 4 Adere Berhane ETH 14:54.36 12 5 Ngetich Priscah Jepleting KEN 14:54.76 10 6 Ochichi Isabella KEN 14:55.50 was matched by the men’s 5000 - 1 Kenenisa Bekele (Eth) 12:51.44
2 Saif Saaeed Shaheen (Qat) 12:51.98
3 Isaac Kiprono Songok (Ken) 12:52.39
4 Tariku Bekele (Eth) 12:53.81
5 Abreham Cherkos Feleke (Eth) 12:54.19
6 Eliud Kipchoge (Ken) 12:54.94
7 Hicham Bellani (Mar) 12:55.52
8 Benjamin Limo (Ken) 12:58.29
9 Zersenay Tadesse (Eri) 12:59.27
10 Augustine Kiprono Choge (Ken) 12:59.70 seems to be the event of the year.
“Olympic Marathon bronze medallist Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil and Tanzania’s World Half Marathon champion Fabiano Joseph (shoe4Africa) will take part in the next ING Amsterdam Marathon on 15 October 2006.” Fabiano may just get the New Tanzanian record, held by fellow Shoe4African athlete Samson, and also Juma Ikangaa at 2:08:01did Itchy Teeth make the cut this week?
“Sadly – NO… the goal was not achieved! I am stuck at 123 lbs but still feel good about it given I have changed the weigh-in to first thing vs after running (when the water weight loss in this weather could be more than 1 lb!). I will admit to some cheese and wine (no brie though!) sneaking back into the diet this week so I’ve only myself to blame.
I predict a nice drop to 122 next week and a subsequent brie celebration!! Still on track for the goal weight by mid-august.”07/14
Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia, has chosen the DN Galan in Stockholm – IAAF Super Grand Prix – on Tuesday 25 July for his first ever race at 1500 ... Well he ran a mile at the Millrose, so it is not ground breaking stuff here….
From Urban (the reader in the UK), “I read that Paul Tergat said about HRM " Oh I never use one, this is for people who don't believe in themselves".Commonwealth 800m champion, Janet Jepkosgei gets the Kenyan national 800m record clocking one minute 56.66 seconds it had stood at 1:57.22. Janet’s boyfriend is Claudio, an assistant to the famous Dr. Rosa.
Marathon world record-holder Paul Tergat has been confirmed in a quality field for the BUPA Great North Run.
Also signed up; Italy's Olympic marathon winner Stefano Baldini and world half-marathon champion Jaouad Gharib of Morocco.
Ethiopia's Deratu Tulu blew away her rivals to win the women's elite race from her compatriot Worknesh Kidane last year -- will she be back? Grand Opening!!
Carpe Diem Public House will be open for business on Saturday July 15th at
8:00 PM The BEST bar in Hoboken, even worth a trip over the sea for a pint. We hear that it will be the happening place of this Summer, so get there early!Last night I went to the house of a guy whose father owns a huge company involved in building and managerial aspects of NYC property -- he has a triplex just off the park! What a place…07/13
News from the Store: Cara writes, “Lauren will be coming to the store at 6:30 for a short talk about sports nutrition and for Q&A. And that is on Aug 01st and open to the publico.. So you have nothing to lose and mucho to gain by being there!
U.S. relay team loses world indoor record because of lack of EPO tests
The big clash tomorrow; Shaheen joins Bekele, Songok and Kipchoge in Rome 5000... If Soi is in the field he could grab it…. Brooklyn booming? Rumors abound that two new running stores are opening in the area.
Don't try to sign up --
NY Mets Run to Home Is Sold Out. The NYRR Half is sold out -- is running in NYC popular or what? Did not even have time to sign up myself for the latter before all the entries went -- that is the way the cookie crumbles, if you snooze, then you loose.When is a written article not a ‘written’ article. Today’s cracker.On the dog n bone with Hellen Cherono my blind friend runner from Kenya -- she will be running Falmouth this year. Her sister is contesting the Shoe4Africa race later this year as our first blind entrant, and is a demon fast runner herself. Coming tomorrow -- the new T shirts for the Kisii Shoe4Africa race coming in October!George phoned up, “I tried to nail some joggers out on my run today, my heart rate was 165! Couldn’t do it….. I‘m finished -- at least I had ten good years when I ran…” He's only 33, he still has a chance to try and improve his mile PR two secs to get a Sub 4.... but he thinks it is the Orbisons for him.... probably is.
Spotted on the Reservoir Heidi Klum, in the person. (Little story in there too).
Man did it pour; cats and dogs times three! I sailed through thre storm to get into the Beautiful Laundrette, only to find the Chinese theme-sters have moved out and the Mexicans in -- so it was like Hot Monterrey on a pepper in there -- makes doing laundry fun.,. Anyway down on the waterlogged track, MasterBlaster, “We turned up because we knew you would!” What loyal troops -- and she is going to have an Urban party again in September(!) We had the three Robins -- Serpentine Robin, Rockin’ Robin, and R2 in full attendance, though Nance the Grapefruit was wagging it Robin said. Doug who is looking stronger and stronger each week was going places speeding up as the session progressed.
There was a new guy, in fact two - the first from BrisVegas (alright Bane) who ran great, and another guy whose names eludes me. Rebecca also welcome -- a friend of Jamie who herself ran like a demon with fire on her heels. Sir Alec also ran great considering he’s been under the weather of late, and the same can be said of Anil who has suddenly found a fifth gear.
Erin was doing her usual trick and running near the front at zoomster speeds.. And further up Adam and Kevin both ran superbly on the ‘water-track’ Tomster arrived a bit late, “The train got canceled in the storm, but I made it -- all credit to him. Andy flew so fast he ran in group two and caught up group one, and overtook.. Well nearly… Cruiser ran superbly all night then made it all happening the handicap running away from the field! Shawn pushing well on tired legs from the Bronx and her enjoyable time up there, and ChuckyChina discovered his one speed actually is the same even if he has to run in lane six the whole way - unbelievable!
Hey Two Boots has been taken over by a vegetarian owner who is slowly redoing the menu, the old Two Boots on the other side of the street is still there, so I asked what is the new name? “ReBoot!” Kool! They have a Japanese Pizza.07/12 "I'll continue training at the same level but I definitely will not be doing the European Championships," Paula Radcliffe, the soon to be Super Mom… ‘women run faster after childbirth’ theme is really going to be put to the test!
‘Radcliffe is surprised people have questioned whether she will carry on competing after her pregnancy, reiterating her desire to compete in the London Olympics in 2012.’
A fashion show at the store as the Hind rep came in to show off the goods for the next season. Stumpy was in from Brooklyn with the new kid Patrick (who can’t talk yet) and Sheila (who can talk). Anil is getting the flu, “Figures when I start training hard right?” Danny the Dollarman is growing his hair again, and chubby changed his socks from the New Balance meeting for the Hind meeting, “Grey is the color for the second meeting of the day…” So what did we rate the Hind stuff as? Needs a bit of jazz instyle, some of the colors were nice, but the function vs practical angles were somewhat missed, like a thread in a flame, like a stitch in the body of the insane. Well I am sure it will sell.
The true story about a man who traded a paper clip and got a house…. On that note if anyone wants to give me such an item I have an abundance of waiting paper clips. Today‘s trade? Kurt Le Verty wanted a Shoe4Africa shirt, so I traded him one for a bottle of ribena (juice from England).
We hear from Kenya -- Rain, rain.
For a great cause we hear, “The NYRR has charity entries available for the ING New York City Marathon 2006. These spots raise money for The Armory, USATF’s USA Distance Project, Central Park Conservancy, The Mayor’s Fund to benefit Van Cortlandt Park, and Achilles Track Club. For more info or to sign-up, please go to this link: Click.And further more a big thanks to Mary S of the NBA for her tireless support of Shoe4Africa -- she is sending us some shirts! Thx Mary!Liu Xiang 12.88 sets the new World 110m Hurdles record
Last night in Lausanne: Winners, the Steeple -Kemboi Ezekiel KEN 8:12.79, 3000m - Soi Edwin Cheruiyot KEN 7:31.84, 1500 - Korir Shadrack KEN 3:31.96, and W1500 - Soboleva Yelena RUS 3:58.60 & the zippy fast 800m --Jepkosgei Janeth KEN 1:56.66 20 #2 Mutola Maria de Lourdes MOZ 1:56.7707/11
Natalya Berkut -- the winner of Freihofer’s.
Thanks to Zika from Zapfitness for a shoe box of shoes.. She says, “I have officially committed to run the NYC Marathon this fall so I will look for you singing at Times Square.” (a reference to our open air concert in Eldoret).
From Stuart A, “Hello Toby, Sabrage is pretty impressive. I didn't believe it until I saw it myself. That was over in France, of course where, as Zidane showed us, they know how to come uncorked.”
UTICA, N.Y. (1010 WINS) -- Democrat Eliot Spitzer and Republican John Faso briefly suspended the race for governor this morning to compete in the Utica Boilermaker 5K race.
The 53-year-old Faso beat the 47-year-old Spitzer by about 14 seconds after 24 minutes of running on 3.1 miles of hot city asphalt. Both finished strong and well ahead of half of the 2,000 runners.
Faso said he started running two years ago to lose weight and get in better shape.
Spitzer said he also makes a point of running regularly.
It was Faso's first win against Spitzer, who has a wide lead in the polls.
Both said this kind of running was a welcome break from the long days of running for governor.” From 1010 wins.
At Sapporo -
1) Cyrus Njui (KEN) 1:01:16
2) Girma Assefa (ETH) 1:01:21
3) Tesfaye Girma (ETH) 1:01:24
Women
1) Mizuki Noguchi (JPN) 1:08:14“My next goal is the Berlin Marathon. I will go after the record again, so please cheer for me”
2) Hiromi Ominami (JPN) 1:09:19
3) Ongori Philes (KEN) 1:10:00...
8) Catherine Ndereba (KEN) 1:11:50
The NY Flyers are asking…
“We usually need some help with the 6:30 and 7:00 groups.” for the long training runs. Any offers? Shawn’s Bronx report, “The high point of my race was listening to one course volunteer's words of encouragement: "Hang in there. I did it last year and I know how much it sucks."Anil is creeping up with the mileage to near 60-miles per week, getting high not only on running but also from painting his apartment, “that’s why I am wearing my black NB shoes…” Figure that one out. Meanwhile Chubbs is regretting running Chicago and looking for loopholes.07/10 Corp Challenge; the fastest man and women (no one from NYC was in the top tyen fastest times, as usual-- Chris Davies 16:45 ROYAL MAIL LETTERS
& Suzy Walsham SYMANTEC Syd 18:39 Chris ran great in Manchester last year hanging with Gebrselassie for 5k.. That was the last race I saw Dereje competed in.
Deena kastor runs 8:56 for a 3000m in Luzern Aheza Kiros of Ethiopia wins in 8:51
Fund Raising: TGV makes a donation to Shoe4Africa (thanks we need It!!) and Merril Lynch matches his donation -- they send the letter to the following address!
Shoe4Afirca
New York, NY 10128. Kool, they must think we are the Donald Trump of known charities. Speaking Shoe4Africa check out the press - sponsoring school fees.We read, with interest:
“Imagine opening a bottle with great ceremony by striking off its
neck with one sweep of a blade. Traditionally the bottle contains
champagne and the implement is always a sabre.
“You might think the result will be lots of broken glass and mess,
but the skill of sabrage lies in hitting the bottle hard just at
the bottom edge of the annulus, the glass ring at the top of the
neck. The blow breaks the neck off cleanly, complete with cork.
Experts advise you chill the bottle very well and avoid shaking it,
remove the foil and wire cage, hold it away from you at an angle of
about 40 degrees and strike with the bottle seam uppermost. Do not
try this at home, kiddies. In truth, a sabre is optional: almost
any hard object with an edge will do it.
“At least one organisation, the Confrérie du Sabre d'Or, maintains
this tradition at its champagne parties. **Goodness, sounds visually exciting.
NBA we read: “The city of Cleveland breathed a sigh of relief Saturday as LeBron James accepted a five-year, $80 million extension.”
Went to see Itchy Tooth the other night.. We talked about Ice Cream.. Anyway she also sent in this email…
“Average weight for the week is 123.12 pounds - so did not drop the full pound this week. To be tougher on myself, next week I am going to switch to a "first thing" weigh in vs after I run. So be warned that the average may not drop like I want it to for a week!”Paris GP 5000-
Bekele Kenenisa ETH 12:51.32 20 2 Soi Edwin Cheruiyot KEN 12:52.40 who won the Kabarak race when I was over in Kenya in December. W5000 - what a finish!
Dibaba Tirunesh ETH 14:54.24 20 2 Defar Meseret ETH 14:54.30 16 3 Bati Gelete Burika ETH 14:55.02 14 4 Adere Berhane ETH 14:56.03
W1500 - super fast:
Chizhenko Yuliya RUS 3:55.68 20 2 Soboleva Yelena RUS 3:56.43& Men’s 1 Heshko Ivan UKR 3:31.08 20 2 Kipchirchir Alex KEN 3:31.36 16 3 Lagat Bernard USA 3:31.48
Great to see Kemboi Ezekiel winning the Steeplechase(!) He is my official starter at the Iten race: KEN 8:09.29 20 2 Kipruto Brimin Kiprop KEN 8:09.64 16 3 Matelong Richard Kipkemboi KEN 8:10.00
Speaking of Kenya we hear from Eldo Lise who is planning to be coming over this Winter to Kenya. He was bbq-ing this weekend.
Shoe4Africa in the papers announcing the sponsorship of Farida and Asia.Boilermaker --
Sammy Rongo M30 Kenya 43:16
2 Wilson Kiprotich M25 Kenya 43:30
3 William Chebon M20 Kenya 43:39
Gete Wami F30 Ethiopia 49:31 Susan Chepkemei F30 Kenya 49:33 Jemima Jelagat F20 Kenya 49:39 We hear from Melanie, who is working 11-hours per day -- I was trying to get her to volunteer some time for some cause, but when people are working such hours it becomes nigh on impossible! the 11-hour job? Working in finance.
"My vision for the future is that it would not be impossible for me to run in the Olympics in London." Rock on Sonia, we know you can do it too!
The World Cup: I went down to the South of the Border, all the way down to Chinatown to a French Bar called Les Enfant Terribles to watch the game. It was Kwasi’s idea as I did mention with the exit of Ghana he had started supporting France (“plus he comes here all the time“). Nina, who is from Austria (who used to the girl sitting on the toilet on her website and when I reminded her of that she pulled up her skirt to ask if anyone recognized her legs…) was supporting Italy (“Better looking team”), and George (From Serbia aka Dorde) asked the night before, “Who are we supporting?” So I suggested Italy as they were the underdogs.
The bar was absolutely hopping, in fact we had to fight our way in to get a space (this was half an hour before George was fighting with a barman for something which now escapes me)…. And New York’s France was all there, and the music was the Zidane-E song which every body was singing along with and jumping up and down.
Anyway we started our own little I-talia-H songs too, with about ten other Italian supporters and when France scored first we danced along anyway…. Along with this big, big woman who did not stop singing La Marseillaise and was more French than an onion in a garlic glove.
The group in front of us turned out to be Serbians too, and George was buying so many bottle of Corona (“Well the bar was packed, I thought I’d stock up”) nobody had a spare hand to do the ‘wave’-- but every two minutes the Zidane song came booming on again…. This American girl was asking, “When are the commercials coming? What’s happening?” Like now is a time for explanations? “Zidane-E” You could hardly hear yourself talk. Global phoned, but he didn’t want to come if it was too crowded, you could not move.. When this woman comes up and asks me “Who are you supporting?” I’m like, “Cheering for Italy!” (Like about ten others standing by my side.) So she asks, “Why?” I reply, “Do me a favor, I’m watching the game.” Not to be perturbed she continues, “This is a French bar, you should be supporting France.” On that logic I should be supporting either America, or China (a la Chinatown) right? But instead, not wanting to further the conversation, I said, “Why don’t you ask someone else why they are cheering for Italy?”
She told me I needed a psychiatrist -- I mean I can’t figure it out, out of the whole place why come and pick on me? Meanwhile Nina was saying Kwasi was drinking too much, George was reading the IM’s of this Serbian person in front of us who kept on poking the cell phone in the air.. And everyone else kept on singing Zidane-E.. In fact it was a big disappointment when the French star went and head butted another player and got sent off, as then they stopped playing his song… Twas a hoot!
We then went in search of a good café, but all the places down there are called ‘Happy’ this and ‘Happy’ that and did not look like good cappuccino joints,then we gotr lost and asked this guy, “Are we going north?” and he looks at us like we are spacemen… I tell you when you go south of 59th St things get boggly. Shules got the message late as she mistakenl;y went to an Irish pub (Forgettign England were out and Ireland were never in? “Nah,the fish n chips“) Anyway Paola was down there and she sent in the picture
Anyway a bit of trivia for the next comp now we are finished with the WC -- who, that used to appear as a local name on this site, is a cousin of Floyd Landers who was second in the Tour de France time trial?07/07
Asia is a huge talent in the making! She is the youngest on the Shoe4Africa team at 15-years old.
Track talk, “did not see any transvestites there though…”
“there was one walking across the track, you missed it!“ Yeah, 6th ST is still open.Noguchi versus Ndereba in Sapporo is the weekend highlight race, unless you are a bomber -- then it is time for the NYRR Bronx Half -- hot, humid,and hilly.. But they do have bagels at the finishing line making it all worth it. It is now just a month away, so a great time to sign up for the Achilles 5-mile race, and please encourage all members of your club to do so; this really is a great cause and one worthy of your support.
I know 'another' 5-miler does get lost in the summer schedule, but this one is a race with a difference. Also over $6000 in prize money is on offer at this event!! Clickus metallic us.“New York City, however, is the most important source of political fundraising in the United States. Four of the top five zip codes in the nation for political contributions are in Manhattan. The top zip code, 10021 on the Upper East Side, generated the most money for the 2000 presidential campaigns of both George W. Bush and Al Gore.”
Last night at the Training; I saw Urs & Lori, “Hey, we invited you for breakfast two years ago, are you coming soon?” Soon we got talking about Swiss Chocolate and whether melted it would go well inside a bagel (the answer is Yes). Then Pat the bagpiper was out there, “If you ever need bagpipes to be played at any event you do, complimentary, let me know…” what a nice chap. Talking to Tattooed Terry about the woes of the World Cup, his girlfriend is rather pleased.. being Italian she would be. The Russian Rocket invited me to dinner, “Steaks!” Yuckalactic. Was life about food tonight, or 'alwaysnight' Anyway the group ran well; Jerry (good cop) was over in Brooklyn, so they had no ‘nice’ workout tonight… The assistant coach, Deadman Todd, decided he did not want to come out either; why? Well there’s a question with a lazy answer. Anil was in a good mood -- things are going well for him, and for once the woman of the moment is not a member of either MCNY or GNY.
The funny part was everyone ran off after I had only explained part one of the workout, which being 5 x 1-mile with one minute rest up a huge hill and back down, was probably what they thought was enough -- ah ah beware the bonus(!) well it was a hot night, so I cut the bonus in half out of sympathy because everyone was looking rather raggedy to just an extra mile… and I found a new tactic to make people run faster; I cycle one inch behind people and yell encouragement. Danny the Dollarman averaged sub five minute miling for the session with his friend, then despite having to stop with stomach cramps ("I needed the toilet the whole session" he moaned) for about twenty seconds still managed an equal performance on the bonus; not bad! Carrie ran great too, and Mary too… Paola was tough, Parks -- well he got a “twinge” John was wondering what he has signed up for, Ivan ran like a trooper (in the reserves) did not see him break a sweat, Jesse ran great, she is learning to push, as did Traci in from Long Island. Adam responded well to the bike on his heels, but did not dig deep enough on the other repeats. Will is looking one pound lighter, as if we noticed -- Paul was holding back on me, not giving the full Python.. We saw Laura out there, Kathy too from the Flyers with a gammy toe.. Yep the park was jipity.
07/06
The NYRR Run against Violence 5k in Central park had 1528 finishers, 888 of them were women. The Germans had as much originality as a coca-cola can, the Italins won. I have not heard from Kwasi who has supported every single team so far in the world cup (until they get knocked out) -- his last email was, “It’s going to be Germany Vs France…”
Darren Campbell ‘insists’ Linford Christie must be involved in coaching British sprinters to give them any hope of glory at the 2012 Olympics. So conflux=ict there due to Liunford’s probbo with a drugs bust meaning he can not be a prt of an Olympic team, as an official, or anything.“Mosquitoes do exhibit blood-sucking preferences, say the experts…Mosquitoes can smell their dinner from an impressive distance of up to 50 meters.”1/2 oz white rum
1/2 oz dark creme de cacao
5 oz coffee
1 1/2 oz whipped cream
1 tsp amaretto almond liqueur
1 tsp sugar mix them up for a Calypso coffee.Talking drinks..The New York Flyers are meeting on Friday for drinks at the rooftop of Sutton Place- 1015 Second Ave (53rd St) -- for their monthly 'Thank God it's Friday drinks, quite the social club.On Tuesday Catherine Ndereba left Nairobi for Japan to defend her Sapporo 1/2M title.“Britain's elite athletes will be allowed to travel free in London as part of a new scheme to ease the cost of training for the Olympics. Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London, yesterday unveiled the first free athletes' London travelcard and said it would be made available to up to 800 sportsmen and women as part of the British Olympic Association's passport scheme.” A girl’s mother in my school used to date Ken Livingstone… We thought the girl herself was fated for great things, she became a lawyer.Well the track was open(!) Phew apparently the ‘werkers’ are on strike anyway, but plans are not cemented to whether or not they would begin today or not.. But as luck would have it… davidP emailed with a swollen ankle, Denise phoned and said “what if it is raining?’ I told her it was not going to rain, but she did not show up anyway -- go figure(!) Those who did; Tom, welcome back looking very Jenny Graigesque, Rick with his banana shoes “Need to get to New Paltz to work on the endurance,“ John from SRZ jumping into a session with little expectations but ran great. Andrew who got stronger and stronger. Doug who did well but suffered on the longer reps. Ben who ran strong throughout. Erin who flew!
Lead the first 2k repeat then after less than 2-mins later blew off a 400m in 68” in the swamp and returned not out of breath. Kristin who got stronger and stronger as the workout got longer. ChuckyChina looked great, for the first time in a while… Meanwhile Luiz looked terrible, then explained he’d eaten a couple of hours earlier and was now suffering like a goat with a live pig in its belly. Peter2 was wishing he had not grabbed the first article of clothing that fell out of his locker; a big black heavy T shirt!
Anil looked far better than last week, and this despite a couple of heavy mileage days -- on his way back! Cruiser continues to be the closer! Robin3 volunteered to chain herself to the gates for next week in an effort to keep the track open -- what a sport! Nicole came down despite the weather-- good for her! Kathy told us Miniblaster is doing great at Stanford, and she is not doing badly herself.
07/05 We hear from Hilda who expands on her sister, “Sleepy sylvia is doing great! In april she went to Italy and she ran very good 10km in 32.34 and half maratton in 1.11.high...
Breakfast with robin; amazing views and how many rooftops you can find in Manhattan. Great coffeeFrom Athens -- a superb 3000m ST
Shaheen Saif Saaeed QAT 7:56.32 20 2 Kosgei Reuben KEN 8:08.79 16 3 Jiménez Antonio David ESP 8:16.24 & 800m -
Borzakovskiy Yuriy RUS 1:43.42 20 2 Bungei Wilfred KEN 1:43.59 16 3 Milkevics Dmitrijs LAT 1:43.67 W800- Kotlyarova Olga RUS 1:57.86 20 2 Petlyuk Tetyana UKR 1:57.93 16 3 Calatayud Zulia CUB 1:57.94
M1500-
Komen Daniel Kipchirchir KEN 3:30.27 20 2 Heshko Ivan UKR 3:31.78 16 3 Boukensa Tarek ALG 3:31.85 W1500 - Soboleva Yelena RUS 3:56.74 20 2 Chizhenko Yuliya RUS 3:58.02 16 3 Lishchynska Iryna UKR 4:00.04
Boos that American John Capel has been banned for two years after testing positive for cannabis for a second time. I mean (of course not that I am an authority) but how can being stoned help you to run faster in the 100m??Had coffee with Rick from the Flyers on Monday at Starbucks -- I noticed they have new fruit frappuccinos and the amount of drinks, iced, they are now selling is crazy! Buy stoicks, this company’s success with never run out!
Then we ran into RLX who was saying how he beat the entire WS team at Tennis out at John Nelson’s place in the Hamptons, “You ain’t seen nothing yet…” Well this guy could not hustle me as I know he used to be a tennis pro back in the day. Chubby was off to the Hampton’s to sit on the beach, “could do with owning a house out there….”
We hear from Jorge of CT, “Results of the Cali (Colombia) Half marathon. Trhis is a tough one! Males Overall: 1) Julius Gidabuday, Tanzania, 1h 03m 33s
2) Araya Aregot , Etiopía, 1h 03m 36s
3) Paulo Alves D’Santos, Brasil, 1h 04m 49s
4) José Nascimento, Brasil, 1h 05m 13s
5) Julián Berrío, Colombia, 1h 05m 06s
Expensive trade --
"Sergant, a Belgian believed to be the key figure, also was fined more than $230,000. His wife, Monique, was given a one-year prison term.Peachtree _ Lornah reigns supreme --
1 27:25 Lel Martin Kenya M 27
2 27:49 Kiprotich Wilson Kenya M
3 27:54 Chebon Chebor William Kenya M 25
4 27:59 Okari Gilbert Kenya M 27 Another fine race by #10 29:10 Letherby Andrew Boulder Colo. Australia M 32 and #28 overall, first woman -- 31:13 Kiplagat Lornah Netherlands F 32 by one place to #29 31:15 Jelagat Jemima Kenya F 21... #41 31:55 Wami Gete Ethiopia F 31 & #42 31:57 Chepkemei Susan Nairobi Kenya F 31
“Lornah won today for the 5th time in her career the Peachtree Rd Race in Atlanta, the largest road race in the World with 55,000 participants.
The race started at 7.30 AM and it was hot and humid. At 1 Mile Lornah ran together with Gate Wami, Susan Chepkemei and Jemina Jelagat. Before the 2 Mile mark she was alone with Jemina Jelagat who stayed right behind her the whole race. With half a mile to go Lornah let Jelagat take the lead and prepared for the sprint. She outsprinted Jelagat with 2 seconds. Lornah's winning time was 31:13. 2nd was jemina Jelagat, 3rd Gete Wami and 4th Susan Chepkemei.”
Ice Cream
1 gallon, 9 ounces of vanilla ice cream
12 minutes set by
Cookie Jarvis. I want to go for this *world record* with scoops to spare.On the subject: From Itchy Tooth, “Although my daily weight did pop back up to 125 on sat, my weekly average (which is what I am using) from sat - fri was down a pound to 124. (You did not mention that on the website!) Not to nit pick but after giving up the brie, and white wine and walking to work (45 blocks) to burn some extra calories, I definitely want credit for the pound lost! Plus this week is already trending great. - am hanging at about 123 with one day at 122.5! Remember - once I hit 122 as a weekly average I get some brie!!!” Y’see we know how to motivate people! Milford Independence 5000
5 km , Milford, CT John Ciccarelli, 22, Southbury, CT 15:39 & Kerry Arsenault, 41*, Guilford, CT 18:05, the winners with Peter Heimparther, 37, Saddle River, NJ 16:56 by way of living on the UWS, #3 2 W40 Cindy Pomeroy, 45*, Windsor Locks, CT 18:38, The fab race director himself Marty Schaivone, 52, Bridgeport, CT 20:35 and the ever friendly John Samsel, 62, New York, NY 19:33 and #3 master Amy Fredericks, 40, Stamford, CT 19:14 A name from the local circuit of past.
07/04 Happy Fourth of July. Lornah wins her FIFTH Peachtree!!!!! Despite ten minutes prior to the gun considering not to compete and withdrawing as Starbucks was advising due to a nagging pain she could not shake the Simba once again roared. 07/03
Kenyan Champs
"I am still strong on the track and I will not let go until the Beijing Olympics,"
10,000m
1. Edith Masai 32:25.4
2. Emily Chebet 32:27.0
3. Irene Kwambai 32:29.1
4. Catherine Ndereba 32:29.8
5. Susan Chepkemei 32:49.0
6. Flomena Cheyech 33:10.5
7. Sally Barsosio 33:29.0 (Men--1. Moses Mosop 28:18.1
2. John Korir 28:20.5
3. Wilfred Taragon 28:22.2)
In the other heat Edith Masai of Prisons (16:06.6) from Jebet Kiplagat of North Rift was second (16:07.3) while Rose Kosgei also from North Rift took third position in 16:07.6 -- years ago rose won the Juniors and was deemed too young to represent Kenya as they listed her age at 12!
Then in the final--1. Edith Masai 15:54.0
2. Isabella Ochichi 15:54.3
3. Sylvia Jebiwott 15:54.6!! Sleepy does great! Unbelievable! She started training for the Shoe4Africa race in January after a year off for childbirth. She would always be the 50-50 for turning up at the morning training.. And she got the name sleepy from the speed she set off when doing the short sprints. Great to see, what a comeback. Very impressive men’s 5,000m too -- 1. Mike Kigen 13:29.0
2. Sammy Kipketer 13:29.3
3. Kiprono Menjo 13:30.1 Remember these are set at altitude on a rough track with more patchwork than on a Grannie’s quilt.
Scottish Will has dropped 4-lbs!! Hey, he’s doing it! Cutting down on the Guinness, well that was Friday before the binge drinking…Firstly -- “At 9:34am on Friday morning, T-Mobile announced that it has suspended Jan Ullrich, Oscar Sevilla and Rudy Pevenage in the wake of the Operacion Puerto affair. The three were implicated in the doping scandal as being clients of Dr Eufemiano Fuentes. None of them will take part in the Tour de France.”
Then: “The various teams taking part in the Tour de France have now suspended all of their riders implicated in the Operacion Puerto affair, including Ivan Basso (CSC), whose nickname was allegedly "Birillo" in Fuentes' files, and Francisco Mancebo (AG2R). Joseba Beloki (Astana-Wurth) is another to be sent home. After Jan Ullrich and Oscar Sevilla were taken out this morning by T-Mobile…
1.Fabiano Joseph, Arusha, 13.52.37
2.Dickson marwa, mara, 14.06.38
3.Msenduki mohamed, 14.15.42
1.Farida Makula, Arusha, 16.50.56
2.Ruhama shauri, Zanzibar, 17.04.40
3.Asuia Swalehe, (15) Arusha, 17.32.93
Argentina Vs The German team AND the referee. Rodrigueg gets brought down in the penalty box where the German went got his legs, not even an attempt to go for the ball and Rodriguez gets a yellow card?? There is obviously no point in anyone palying the Germans until the final as this game is a flipping fix. From a non-partisan position it was an absolute embarassment to watch. Argentina were diddled.Itchy Tooth writes in, “Bad news - today's weight was 125 lbs again! Sadly, the scale, like the clock, does not lie. This week's motivation: "2 seconds per pound per mile" The time you can kiss goodbye for very pound you are above ideal race weight. Just read your site. Sadly - the brie has been eliminated for the duration of operation race weight. I may treat myself once I drop below 122 (haven't seen that weight in quite some time).
So Itchy’s example did not leave me feeling I had to be good about myself; The food review is from Vico on Madison in the 90’s -- Red Spicy sauce on angle hair pasta with grilled shrimp; not bad, big chunks of garlic, but that is a plus.. the pasta was defo nothing to write about, and the sauce was good but didna jump out of the sprocket. The cheesecake dessert was very, can we say almost, wet and crumbly? The drizzle of caramel(?) did not really go so well, and the whole thing was kind of out of joints with itself.
Quote of the day could have come from Johnny Continental, but instead twas Hamlet, “For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come.”At Aphsalt Green this weekend and who did I bump into but Josh, and then Conor (aka The Irish Ironhorse) who is a immigrant success story if ever there was one. He was asking if I was thinking of becoming a triathlete -- fat chance, usually at the pool the attendants come and check on me to see if I have actually died in the water or if it is possible for someone to move so slowly!
I have not done a session of water running since 1994 when I went nuts; I was in the pool every morning for two hours, on the bike for that in the PM.. And in those days people (in Sweden) did not realize that much about running in water -- everyone thought of me as a person who could not swim so I was constantly yelled at by people in the swimming lanes, little kids would point to me and laugh to their parents saying “He can’t swim, looks like he is drowning…” I was super skinny in those days with scant body fat, and I never used a floatation belt, so I had to peddle like pig through a barbeque to stop from going under. I can‘t believe I kept that up for a month, it would have been longer but my team was off to Southern Spain for a training camp in the Sun at out beautiful locale and the coach said to me, “The sun will do you good, just being there will heal you…” so off I popped to escape the rest of the winter. And was he right! Those Andalusian days that rolled from one to the other, with the most stress coming from a braying donkey or a lost bottle opener, were just the biscuit.
Chatting with the Russian Rocket for the first time in a while -- the Rolls Royce is going… damn, he’ll just become Mr. Jones from now on, the Roller was the identity.. The Russian Bucket?06/30 Shoe4Africa Farida Makula wins a National Title at the 1500m!
From Michelle Bleakley in Ozland, “Frickin huge here, really tired , and only 5 weeks to go!! Maybe earlier... I don’t know how my stomach can stretch anymore.. thank god no
stretch marks.” She’s power-walking, good for her!
How is Itchy Teeth doing? has she lost a pound this week? Find out on Monday! Itchy's fave food? Brie is a biggie.
Dwain Chambers on his return to athletics, “There was no gas in my legs.” Yes, but was there THG that’s what we want to know!
RUNNING is broadcast on the YES Network, which reaches 10.3 million households in the tri-state area, including 3.8 million nationally on Direct TV. To confirm airtimes, visit www.yesnetwork.com and click on “TV Schedule,” or visit sportfilm.com and click on “Broadcast Calendar.”
RUNNING is produced by Salmini Films.Name of the day --Zipporah Ratemo, a 400m runner from Kenya.In Atlanta for Peachtree we hear from Starbucks, “Hot and humid like always. Will be a strong field: Lornah, Susan C, Constantina Dita, Gete wami, Berkut!” Can the Simba be beaten? Hm, we think not!
Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, has masterminded England's last two exits from major tournaments -- Saturday, the big game! England Vs Portugal But tomorrow the connoisseurs match Germany Vs the Brilliant Argentina -- should be brill!Out on the reservoir last night the runners were running from the lightning, “We’re going to get hit!” Chubbs and I were leaning on the metal railing with our umbrellas (mine was a ladybird umbrella, which is quite the rage) up in the air hoping for a buzz.. Actually with a metal head I figure I must be a good conductor. Will has promised to lose 10-lbs by august, looks like I will have to make some subtle reminders that I was asking for 15... Anil’s lucky bracelet broke when I walked in the store, and If I was him I’d be asking for my money back for a number of reasons….
Chubby was doing fine after hitting some 64 second quarters in practice earlier this week, “There is not a master runner in this city who can run with me when I am ‘on par’… so watch this space!” Rumor has it he may be running Chicago as part of the New Balance team -- Todd was talking about his therapist Allen.. I asked if I could borrow Todd’s phone and hit redial to see who he’d been talking to (y’know helping out, offering some therapy of my own) but unfortunately I came to nothing more interesting than his mailbox), Danny the Dollarman needs to grow his hair again, he was a lot faster before he went to the Dock n Harbor (barber), and a customer was offering sandwiches for socks, what a deal..
Earlier up at the West Side track with the Running Rehab Program a smoggle of wet, husty humidity sank onto the track and I was amazed to see the Rehab runners knocking it out in fine style, we had two new recruits today as well!
06/29 The most rainy June in recent years? Probably not but it seems like it.
A guy stops me on the street with a shopping trolley with “For sale, things” written on a card on the front of the basket and asks me if I want to buy a printer, so I said no.. I try to walk on, but he rummages in the basket, “Can I interest you in a cell phone charger, I have three models?” Is this the new ebay?
Run Until the Violence Stops - A ‘master’ full affair on the women’s side --1 Olena Plastinina 42 WS NY 19:11 2 Stephanie Hodge 40 NYH NY 19:33 3 Gordon Bakoulis 45 MCNY NY 19:45 -- what a jolly rocker (shocker) that Steph was there competing, from Black Rock to Beruit it is a guarantee she’ll be at a race on any day of the week, any hour of the day… “Took my chances on a B-set plane, If the conditions were cold then god help the pain.” And the men.. Interesting enough half the age! Julius Arile 22 CARM KENYA 16:01 2 Jacob Cooper 32 GNY NY 16:47 3 Alex Reinhart 21 WI 16:54 -- What does this tell us about anything, nothing - just a passing observation, something that.. Nothing more.
The NHL is considering an outdoor game in NYC -- yep that is the way to go, ice over the Reservoir and let the games begin.Britain’s Jo Pavey, getting the impressive win in the Euro Cup 3000 8:52.54 minutes in front of Russia’s Olesya Syreva 8:58.27, whose nation is leading on Day one in both the men’s and the women’s comp. Hesko & Lebid won the 1500, and the 5000m for the men’s Ukrainian team.The Urban Pirates: It was the most hot and humid night of the track season so far; like fog off the hovering river. Loads of traffic too tonight for some reason, Anyway that did not stop Erin from opening the session (4 x 1-mile and 1x800 with a skinny rest) in a 5:27! Atilla, forlorn with the lack of Holland in the WC was down showing me his watch that has this GPS tool that can show you the way home, give you ‘yourself’ to race against on a route you have ran before and a 1,000 other things.. And he ran well to boot, Jamie was in the killer mode too -- running like a flippin Shark she killed on the last mile repeat after making me swear there would be no bonus miles added on like last time, Andy from Poland has just given up smoking and picked a great night to come and run for his first ever track session -- mind you he did great!
Kevin the Commander finally got it right last night too -- just where I wanted him to be running. Danny the Dollarman, inhis Mexican colors was looking under the weather as he is logging the heavy miles, but losing the speed faster than a rabbit loses his whiskers at a foxes’ banquet, Shawn with reports of her4 Bridge run was shouting some stuff out as she ran past that I could not quite grasp, but…
MasterBlaster was leading Group Two and telling everyone, “the rest is over!” Robin(s) were both enjoying the humidity, Not. Nance the Grapefruit looked calm and collected and sped up nicely once wearmed up. Michelle tried to produce some tears of pain, but they just were not coming last night. Dan ran solid, and survived, and Chuckychina held on well -- I tell you it was a tough night. DavidP is battling for us to keep the track open, as is Lisa -- Way to go, but no conclusive answers as yet!
Luiz would be a Republican if he was a politician, running conservatively, but strong. Cruiser dancing round the track in style and shifting and closing well on the final laps… I got out of breath from yelling, it was such a night. R2 got caught up in a meeting so could not make it down, and the worst excuse came from Century Man, “I might hurt myself if I come down…” Can tell he was not born to be a Pirate. The new bike is making travel nice, zooming around like a torpedo -- the only probbo is the handlebars are like a Yak’s, I am as wide as a bread van, and I keep on having to pull wheelies to stop my hands smashing into wing mirrors as I dart up the middle lanes.
Stade de France on the 8 July will be the first clash of the titans for the Women‘s 5000- Defar faces China’s Olympic 10,000m champion Huina Xing, Kenya’s Olympic 5000m silver medallist Isabella Ochichi, Kenyan 5000m record holder Edith Masai, and Ethiopia’s World Cross country short course champion Gelete Burka… all we need is the Baby Faced Assassin to join the field! 06/28
How very… un British…“British health food shops will soon be offering customers iced cannabis tea, its Swiss distributor said.
Sold under the label "C-Ice Swiss Cannabis Ice Tea", the beverage contains five percent of hemp flower syrup and a tiny (0.0015 percent) quantity of THC, the active ingredient of marijuana.
Shenorock Day Celebration and 5K
Sunday, July 9th 3pm-8pm
5K start: 5:30pm
Shenorock Park
Shenorock, NYSherone Simpson at the Jamaican National Track & Field Championships, ran a world season leading 100m time of 10:82 showing she is the new name on the (starting) blocks for this Summer.
We hear from Sweden and Mr 2;12 Anders Szalkai the legend of the Swedish marathon running --he is working hard and, in my opinion, too many hours, for Puma -- though he’ll be coming with a group from Sweden for this year’s ING NYC in the fall. This past weekend he won a big race in Sweden, only because he was there working and Puma were sponsoring the race, so he jumped in, ran, and won it.Reports are that there was a fun event in Brooklyn last night with some fast running in Prospect Park, 2200 -runners which is a big field for a Boro race….
06/27
Farida Makula, hopefully the next happening athlete of Tanzania.
From Starbucks,
“It was a sad weekend for all of us but life has to continue ! First Sweden out and now the Dutchies, World Cup over ! real life starts again.
“The good news: Luc ran a great Half Marathon the weekend. He still had to qualify for the European Championships Marathon and needed to run sub 64'30 on the Half. He tried two weeks ago and he failed. This week he had a tough trainings week but we found a half Marathon in Holland with good competition and on Thursday we decided to go for it. He was 3rd in the race, the Marquetteloop in Heemskerk, in 63:32 ! The course record was 64:09 so he rally ran well. Now some rest and get ready for Sweden, watch out for Luc ! ( The "real Mr. toothpick" )
“Moscow has eclipsed Tokyo as the world's most expensive city, a new survey says.
New York — ranked No. 10, up three spots from last year — remains North America's costliest city, followed by Los Angeles and San Francisco.” Okay, so take out Staten Island, the Bronx, Brooklyn (the largest boro), and Queens.. And what do you get -- Manhattan -- which should be called a city in its own right as it has all the qualifications of being such, and would then catapult to a clear Number One. The least-expensive city surveyed was Asuncion in Paraguay. Bet they did not survey Addis. Unbelievable Double by Bernard! USATF 1500 to go with his 5000m title --
1 Bernard Lagat Nike 3:39.29 2 Gabriel Jennings unattached 3:39.42 3 Leonel Manzano Texas 3:39.49... And the women’s --Treniere Clement Nike 4:10.44 --Khadevis Robinson Nike 1:44.13 rana great 800m….
British sprinter Dwain Chambers will lose his European 100m gold medal and British record after all his results since January 2002 are annulled by the IAAF.
Tanzanian Photos are now updated.So I finally got the new bike yesterday. I phoned up, “Yes we’ll build it for you, yes it will be ready…” So it was down on Grand ST, so I ran down there -- unbelievable I had to stop for traffic only once, on Grand ST! Talk about the fastest way to get round Manhattan, it only took thirty-five minutes from the Post Office on 91st & Third (Yes back there doing more postings). Shocking.. I thought I was going to have to stop at the UN building for traffic, then a kind ambulance came along and stopped the crossroads for me, well not really for me, but I did nip across. SO anyways getting there I found the bike unbuilt. SO I hung out at the bike shop learning all about he Grand ST community (quite active) all the oldest people who hang out on the streets (“he’s 95”) and what theya ll talk about -- nuts completely.. Anyway zipping back was quicko as the new bike is fab; luckily it was disk brakes, a big upgrade on one non-working one on my last model. Ah stopping is such a luxury.Central Park’s Summer Stage offering some great concerts as usual.
06/26
Filbert Bayi won the 1974 Commonwealth Games 1500m and set the world records for 1500 metres in 1974 and the mile in 1975. He was the clear favorite for Olympic Gold in 1976, unltil the African Olympic Boycott. Four years later past his prime he won the silver medal in the 3,000 m steeplechase at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. A true legend of the sport. His birthday was this past Friday.
Bayi is pictured here with 13 years old failuna who finished 3rd in the Shoe4Africa race -- Bayi was our Ambassador for the race.
Safaricom Lewa Marathon (extremely tough course) --Catherine Ndereba in 1:17.52 & Joseph Mwaniki in 1:07.39.The news on Dereje’s sad death.EPO-berko phoned up the other day --he’s now become a Pappa #2 with a baby girl.. Still awaiting his master’s comeback.At the USA Nat Track Champs -W5000
1 Lauren Fleshman Nike 15:12.37
2 Kara Goucher Nike 15:14.13
3 Blake Russell Reebok 15:19.07
4 Carrie Tollefson adidas 15:23.49
5 Jennifer Rhines adidas 15:29.51
6 Marla Runyan Team Eugene Inc. 15:31.78 W10,000
1 Amy Rudolph adidas 32:25.56 2 Sara Slattery adidas 32:29.97 3 Samia Akbar Reebok 32:41.84
M5000 -- Two hours after he ran the 1500 heats!! 1 Bernard Lagat Nike 13:14.32
2 Matt Tegenkamp Nike 13:15.00
3 Dathan Ritzenhein Nike 13:16.61
4 Adam Goucher Nike 13:18.93 M10,000
1 Jorge Torres Reebok 28:14.43
2 Meb Keflezighi Nike 28:18.74
3 Daniel Browne Nike 28:19.32
A local runner writes in, and we’ll disguise her by calling her Itchy Teeth; “Sadly, I must admit that the weight I gained during last year's holiday(who could pass up all that awesome food and wine!?) has never really come off. Lack of motivation for running and poor training habits for the past year (OK -really no training habits!) have left me well above my ideal race weight of 115 lbs Now I find that even though I am back to training the weight just isn't coming off so I have kicked off OPERATION RACE WEIGHT!!
For the next 8 weeks I will attempt to lose 1 lb per week. Sound easy? - Not so when you realize that 500 calories a day must be eliminated (or burned!) in order to acheive that. For someone who already exercises and eats pretty healthy that can be tough! So on to portion control, no chocolate treats in the afternoon at work and, the toughest part of all - no white wine only a bit of red!! All that sugar? Forget it! I prefer to eat my calories - not drink them.
“Starting weight (Fri morning): 125 lbs
Today's weight: 124 lbs
Weekly average to come next Friday!
“You can find me at the C-Town stocking up on Kashi Go-Lean Crunch, lettuce, and salmon!” Thanks Itchy, will she do it?? You can find out here! Meanwhile I weighed myself, only to find I am ten pounds over my usual weight! Shock, horror and bagels.
From Starbucks, “Jason just ran course record in Appingedam 10 K. 28.30. 3rd was Salim Kipsang. Women: 1st Phlomena ( wife of Jason ) and 2nd Sharon ! No times yet.” Thanks…
Then ten mins later Ariel sends us the results -- Thanks -- 1. Jason Mbote - 28.29
2. Jamal Baligha - 28.33
3. Salim Kipsang - 28.55
1. Flomena Chepchirchir - 33.35
2. Sharon Tavengwa - 34.38, and the two girls--
Meanwhile on an extremely humid day in CP the FRNY race had a steaming winner -- #1 Demesse Tefera 23 WTC NY 23:45 A superb time given the conditions… 2 Worku Beyi 19 NY 24:05 3 Matt Downin 29 NJ 24:39
And the wimmin --1 Alemtsehay Misganaw 25 NY 27:45 2 Alemgna Desta 25 NY 28:03 3 Claudia Camargo 35 WSX CT 29:19
I was headed downtown to watch the Sweden Game Vs Germany. Firstly I met Global at Ess-a-Bagel where we caught up with the news, then went over to a bar on Avenue A and 14th.. The atmosphere was flat apart from a bonkers British barman who was firing out theories to who and why countries won the World Cup that were as entertaining as the game.. Wasn’t! It was a terrible game if you were a Swedish Fan -- I mean three defenders did not stop a dribbling ball, just as bad was listening to the American commentators, The Umpire’s assistants -- should be the referee’s linesmen… and this is a game of Turnovers, and whoever scores first will win (??).. And continued, "This guy is good, he should be in the Italian Team" (The guy is French)... and "This player can't complain about the hot German Summers, he plays in the German league" (Yeah but that is the winter and the spring... Well needless to say we left to go to a Turkish Coffee shop on First for.. Yep. Well it was shut, so then we went back to Avenue A and Café Pick Up for coffee instead. Then the rains fell like a truckload of horse shoes so we had to take cover in another place whilst the street life walked by drenched and soaked.
5000M --
1. Farida Makula, Tanzania Sports Academy, 16.55.69
2. Asia Swalehe, Tanzania Sports Academy, 17.06.61
3. Nathalia Elisante, Team100, 17.26.36
1500M
1. Farida Makula, Tanzania Sports Academy, 4.37.40
2. Jackline Sakilu, team 100, 4.44.32
3. Asia Swalehe, Tanzania Sport Academy, 4.46.08
Former 10,000 metres world champion Gete Wami produced an impressive display to win the 10K Great Women's Race in Sunderland on Sunday.
The 31-year-old took control after stepping up the pace with just over 2km left to win in 33 minutes, 43 seconds. Liz Yelling was the highest-placed Briton, finishing fourth.
David Beckham, "It was an ugly performance but it was what we wanted and we'll take ugly performances…" Some might say they have no choice… On Sunday I watched the game at Jonnie’s new apartment on Central Park West -- his TV screen was bigger than most of the players.. I remember the day they used to measure TV screens in inches! I met Adri from Venezuela (she is being coached by Jonnie for NYC this fall) who came to watch the match, and who said, “I’m going to Germany next week to watch the quarters, semi’s and the finals.. And I have downloaded this running program to do in Berlin!” Small world -- she was talking about the thing I did, the Puma Trainaway Berlin project! It seems years ago I was in the double Olympic Gold marathon star Waldemar Cierpinski’s apartment working on that! How times flies.
Speaking of Lornah she is setting off next week to return to the US to race at Peachtree where she is the undisputed Queen, multi winner,and course record holder... Strabucks is still bed riddenwith a bad back.. watching football.
From Will, “My Quote of the evening "will, you need to lose 10lbs". I am working on this just cut out the bagels and the irish gatorade - Guinness.”
Quote from OzPaul, “If Australia’s game against Italy is on any day that I am scheduled to be doing something I am not doing it.” OzPaul was #4 in the Corp Challenge last night… Anil set off at a blistering pace despite the Dallas-like humidity, Herb the Verb had one goal in mind -- to beat Deadman Todd, and rumor has it, from Toni, that he did. Was not there myself. I bumped into Joy before she leaves the city for the summer, she’s just bought a treadmill -- a smart buy though she was one of the very few who ran on NYC’s most snowy day in the history of the world (this February) which we were talking about today on a most humid day… Had lunch with Rick Pres. Of the NY Flyers at Trata Estiatorio -- Split Pea soup as a starter, Wild Striped Bass and sweet corn, and cinnamon cake with ice cream, followed by coffee. I liked this place though the vegetables were poor, the service was good, the coffee was weak, but the dessert was fabbo.. The bread was not bad at all either… Rick is returning from an injury, enjoying food,and fighting parking tickets picked up whilst in Starbucks.
Earlier in the day it was discussions with Javier on the current Football issues, then up to the Rehab Runners Training Group -- wow they are getting snappy now, looking like veteran runners -- I can no longer pick them out as beginners… then a lovely breakfast on the edge of Central Park before up for a morning jog -- decided to do it on the treadmill as I was super tired and did not have the energy to leave the gym once I'd climbed the stairs to get in there… getting there I discovered I could watch the World Cup whilst jogging -- nearly fell asleep whilst doing that.
USA Champs this weekend, starting today..
Dada at the Moma, and Pinto ridden by Brianne Goutal last Sunday.
06/21
Lisa Donlan is driving to keep the 6TH St tarck open -- if you can attend the meeting on 06/27 (next Tuesday) PLEASE do. We are asking that they do the renovations of the clubhouse first without closing down the whole facility which seems ludicrous.
Contact Lisa. And thanks to her for doing this -- really appreciated!
Dwain Chambers is selected in the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team for next weekend's European Cup in Spain. The British selectors taking a different stance from Dave Bedford and the World Majors….
From Mustafa (Catherine Ndereba’s trainer) over in Morocco, about the Shoe4Africa race;
“I just want to let you know that the National TV showed some clips of the race twice. One they showed on Sunday at 9pm and the other on Monday at 12:30PM..” Cool.
we read, "Prof Tim Noakes launched a scathing attack on sports administrators…." (thanks to Jeff for the link… Tim N. wrote probably the best ever book on running ever written).
EPSON, Adidas and Seiko are the official sponsors of the World XC 2007 in Kenya next year.From Mr Brazil after the Flyers workout --
“Thanks for the brutal workout yesterday, doing the 3 1.2-mile repeats with a mere 30 seconds break was painful.”
And last night’s group -- Everyone was supporting Danny The Dollarman, as the workout was complete when he did 20 repeats. Never had he been so popular, every one was running by, “How’s Danny doing? IS he looking good? Hanging in?” Lisa was down recruiting for the cause, Robin ran even split’s the whole night, Eileen killed herself on the track earning bonus points, Michelle - congrats on the age group award on Sunday - Flying! Doug dueling well, Chuckychina hanging in like a Turkey bone, Kevin picking up the gears, Peter2 sick for two weeks, then straight back on track -- what a hero, Will ready to lose 15-lbs, Clark nice form, DavidP still recovering from the sore ham, Rebecca -- wow, showed some great speed, Kristin zipping round with Doug, Christine smiling each lap, and Christine Cruiser picking up the speed nicely, Alec with newly clipped hair “Some of us do visit barbers”, Luiz looked faster and faster the longer the session went on, Kathy G pushed well, and Kathy Masterblaster simply blasting -- very focused this week on track!
Talking of which we hear from Kwasi, “I am watching all the games
at my local french bar on canal and ludlow. Les Enfant
Terrible. Come on down, free!”
Up in Harlem today I saw a school teacher lead her whole class across Malcolm X Boulevard today on a green light! Cars swerving, vans sliding, kids dancing! I was up soliciting Prez Clinton with Shoe4Africa DVD’s…This weekend, with dollars we hear, and team prize money -- the FRNY Front Runners 5-miler, in Central Park.
Barnabas Chirchir goes back to Iten today with a sack of shoes. Saving us the postage, and making him very happy.
Then for the rest of the shoes what do we do? We pack them in boxes, put them on the trolley and hump them to the post office -- the pile was so high I had to walk backwards half a mile with the top box being held on the pile with my head. Apologies to the people I bumped into, but that is life! Damn potholes too. We sent twenty plus boxes that will be stockpiled for the Kenya races later this year -- Kisii in October, and Iten in December.
06/21 Today the Half Marathon entry line is open at the NYRR -- I bet it closes PDQ.
Zoo warning -- Central Park gets the Corp Challenge tonight and tomorrow -- forget about getting round the park!Gold is doing well now, if you want to throw away your titanium now is a good time! Stocks n bonds advice.I phoned the bank today -- a flipping forty-five minute hold! What a con. “This is the last message you will hear before a representative talks to you…” A bible length of info later… “this is the last….” All I wanted was a Swit code that was unavailable on the web site... despite hearing 723-times "All inforation regarding banking can also be found online at...
Judith Tripp slows down on her racing after (she writes), “a perfect record of six 1st places and six Prs.” Well done Judith, a NY Flyer… and talking Flyers we did a hill session last night on the West Side of things. RLX was out there with the Warren St troop and we hear that John Nelson has become a Poppa John - congrats.
I met this guy the other day and he was telling me this story about how he learned to ride horses without telling his wife. Then one day he took her to the stables, and sat her down.. She was quite impressed. He was telling me about the best butchers shop in New York (on Madison at 80-81st) and I told him I did not eat meat (we were eating at the time) and he said, “Good, it’s damn expensive.” So a good place to avoid. Anyway the nice chap has bought two benches in Central Park to help out the conservancy.
Olympic Champ Stefano Baldini is a member of the Italian team for the European Championships in Gothenburg this Summer, a huge boon for the comp.
Talking Sweden -- this Saturday time to knock Germany out of the world cup in the next round as Sweden advance after drawing with England today.
Sign up for the Achilles Hope & Possibility 5-miler now! And support a great cause-- Do you know how many School kids in NYC benefit by the Achilles existence? Loads!
Erin (was top 15, not 25 like the plaque says) & Lornah-- Starbucks sent this, and we are sad to report that he is lying in bed with a bad back over in Holland. He should have never left NYC as he was fine when here running about in Central Park like a demon.
Obviously the quality is not so great, and you can’t read the messages with the pictures, but you get an idea…. Urban, who was one of the first to see it wrote, “The catch phrase is good "Promoting AIDS awareness through sports" -- we have to thank Rapido Estupendo for that, as she came up with the line.
New York, NY, Deena Kastor said of her 2001 attempt: "I couldn't wait to come back. Since then it's been my dream to win the race." She’l be running in November heavily favored to win…. Or… A huge scoop for the ING NYC Marathon!!Over in Germany -- the Jamjar is #4 -- Die Nacht von Borgholzhausen -- M #1 Charles Ngolepus, KEN 22:57 & # 2. Nicholas Koech, KEN 22:59
Wimmin -- 1. Eunice Jepkorir, KEN 25:28
2. Milka Jerotich, KEN 26:29
3. Susan Hahn, GER 26:53
4. Magdaline Chemjor, KEN 27:25
Ran in to Maxim (Lyubov's husband) on Sunday whilst --
@ Greater Clarksburg 10-K Lyubov Denisova, 34, RUS 34:17 was #4 on a tough tough course. I have ran this one.. With the famous road trip with Delialah Asiago & Thomas back in the old days. Anyway Maxim was talking about the experience of living in Brooklyn, let's say he is not over enamored.
Ghana has declared a half-day public holiday for Thursday’s match against the United States.
Confident players, however, are already eager to take on Brazil in the second round.
I had a trucking day yesterday -- I was all over the place, out in Queens, downtown, uptown, sideways and around -- dead beat, two hours in the “Genius Bar’ at the computer shop (“Now let’s see what the Apple chat rooms suggest” said the genius, urm…).. Anyway the long & short of it was I ended up in the Supit with the idea of buying some fruit to revive me.. I left with 2 x 56-OZ of Breyers Ice cream-- the strawberry cheesecake (eaten last night) and the Peach -- soon to go… passing the checkout I remembered the fruit…. Dur.06/17
If anyone has ever lived in the Arab world they will better understand what these pictures are about (Click HERE)… An email from Lise,
“But being used to the Arab mentality towards women for years on end, (in Israel, Egypt and what appeared to be in Morocco) this is simply staggering -- I don't believe those pictures.”
Small world Bob Sweeney gave this guy my email; “Hollow 'Toby' hope you are doing fine, let me remind you myself........we were together in Kenya i live in Iten.....i trained with you several time over there with Hilda when you were organising shoe 4 Africa race.....it was great, my wife got a shoe, she's a runner too......So am staying in Manhattan… Barnabas Chirchir”
On Sunday - the day started very badly indeed as I decided to participate in the 5-miler in the park. The gammy leg hurt the whole way round (no longer an injury now a handicap) to the extent I considered dropping out twice.. However -- Cooling down with George Milic, and Isaya we commiserated with one another with our various states of deteriation. Isaya, "At least onthe downhills this weight I have can act as a momentum." George, "I have at last one good leg.. will that be enough to make a comeback as a Master runner?"
Things then began to pick up...
All the way to Urban where on the Street where Barnabas was waiting for me.. In an original gray Shoe4Africa T shirt from Iten (he is on some of the photos from that day). So we gave me a sack of shoes (literally) to take home to Iten (saving us postage!)
Then I went out to Colt’s Neck New Jersey for the Horse Show Jumping competition. I was a guest at the VIP table of Jean & Toni Goutal who are delectable hosts (whose daughters took second and third), so I learned all about the cost of the horses, $300-400,000, the entry fee $700, the stabling fees, wow, you must have megabucks to get into this sport! On the next table was Christopher Keeler(?) or something who won an Olympic Gold at the Athens Olympics. Brianne Goutal (the eldest daughter) is one of the best in the country, she had brought two horses to the event to ride so we went to look at her horse in the stable, but found a penguin instead, I kid you not, and the penguin was alive and had come from Africa... More of this story to come including the rich English sons n daughters of the sponsors, who won the $100,000 giveaway Mercedes, and how the talk in the tent went--
In the evening it was to Orsay on Lex and 75th (which used to be co-owned by Jean and is now owned by Jean #2) and I can highly recommend the draft Heineken, the Goat Cheese Salad (superb) and the salmon (though as a main course I was left hungry).
We read, “Christine Clifton (In addition, Christine was the 2003 National Champion in the 25-kilometer distance, the 2003 National Half Marathon Championship runner-up, and a 2003 U.S. World Half Marathon Championship Team member and now owns the shop SHORERUNNER in New Jersey. She is starting a collection of sneakers
for "SHOE4AFRICA".. website is www.shorerunner.com -- Thanks VERY Happy to hear this!!
More results fromth Kenyan Prisons Champs -- Ezekiel Kemboi timed 8:36.0inthe steeplechase, Collins Ngeno followed in 8:37.1 and Matelong clocked 8:49.0.
10,000m
1. Emmanuel Chamer 28:18.2
2. Gilbert Okari 28:43.8
3. Paul Langat 28:57.0
Steamboat Official results -- Men
1 John Korir (Kenya) 18:16 $4,000
2 Josh Moen (MI/USA) 18:24 $2,500
3 John Yuda (Tanzania) 18:39 $2,000
1 Lornah Kiplagat (The Netherlands) 19:43 $4,000
2 Benita Johnson (Australia) 20:13 $2,500
3 Cristina Mazilu (Romania) 20:52 $2,000
Sergei Lukin 1 1/132 1/281 2:15:10
3 Pavel Andreev 2 1/39 2/281 2:18:14
27 Jae Hyung 3 2/39 3/281 2:18:26
Oophs, forgot to Post this Mini Album! The slide show goes well if you listen to M’en voulez vous sung by Pauline Croze.
Standing on the street and this guy comes up to me, “You remind me of someone, someone Swedish.. The high jumper!” the guy (I found out) meant Patrick Sjoberg, who also a Cyprus citizenship, and a bar in Puerto Banus called ‘Harleys’, well it is in Marbella, but he lives in PB. Earlier that day I was over in Brooklyn picking up the Shoe4Africa DVD‘s wandering round the streets completely lost and this person came up and told me something quite bizarre before walking off, It was quite the day for street talk.06/17 19:39 --9:33 @ 2-miles, 4:48- @ 1 mile, 15:07 @ 5km.. Third fastest… “no good bonus for a world record…” An on the site update… The Simba in Cruise Control! Steamboat 4-miler - win! Benita was second. 90-degrees and Starbucks was up at 4-AM with the Simba for the warm up run. Of course this is not the Simba's PR at 4-miles either!! She has ran faster (officially) and furthermore I swear I have seen her run faster on a section of the Pond Loop in Kenya when the chickens are first ruflling their feathers on the Rift Valley's lips and speed is the stride of lightning not witnessed past the vision of the eye.06/16 Eating last night at Buzina Pop, drinking Rose, chatting about holiday plans, lost a little weight... Hugh Grant...
Former World mile record holder Filbert Bayi was the guest of honor at the Shoe4Africa Aids Awareness race in Tanzania on Wednesday. An astonishing 1349 young ladies and girls from schools in the surrounding districts finished the Shoe4Africa 5km race in Tanzania on Wednesday morning with just over 1,500 signing up for the event. The IAAF World Half Marathon Champion Fabiano Joseph and Commonwealth Games Marathon Champion Samson Ramadhani held the finishers tape for the leading athletes as Zacharia Baria, the commonwealth 10,000m silver medalist in Brisbane 1982, was the official time keeper. This was the largest women's only race held in Tanzania.
The shoe4africa organization based in New York tries to promote Aids Awareness through a running friendly environment of staging races in African countries, bringing young impressionable athletes together with the 'Michael Jordan's of Africa, who can then pass on the important message.
More details can be found on the website www.shoe4africa.org
Leading Results:
1.Farida Makula, Tanzania Sports Academy, 20.05
2.Asia Swalehe, Tanzania Sports Academy, 20.31
3.Failuna Abdi, Hachwi, 21.05
4.Emeliana Juma, Zanzibar, 21.14
5.Zulfa Ramada, Kingale, 22.11
6.Mwanahamisi Mustafa, Hachwi, 22.15
7.Sesilia Richard, Kingale, 22.18
8.Rehema Ismail, Iyoli, 22.36
From Urban in London, “Heard some tragic news. I think you traveled with Dereje Kabede to Scotland to do the race last year? I was just told the former Ethiopian runner was found dead in his flat. Don't know
what to say, he used to train around Finsbury Park. I didn't know him in person, but seen
him last year when Haile G. ran the British 10k and he knew him too. It's always sad when
a talented runner dies.” Thanks Urban. He was a very nice guy, very humble and respectful -- he ran on the Ethiopian World Championship winning Half Marathon team in 2001 with Haile Gebrselassie, and was trying to get a UK citizenship. He was brought up to Scotland to try and get my Kilt 10k record.More Russian Champs results --
Yulia Chizhenko's 1:57.07fastest in the world this year #2 Svetlana Kliuka 1.57,21 #3
Svetlana Cherkasova, 1.57,23 , & #4 Olga Kotliarova
1.57,24 -aal super fast, and the women’s 10,000 --Galina Bogomolova
31.31,58 # 2
Inga Abitova
31.32,24 #3
Lidia Grigorieva
31.33,27Hallamshire Harriers next star? This is the club Seb Coe used to run for from the age of 12 till his late twenties, also Carl Thackeray who won a bronze in the World Half and was a phenom on the roads -- winning Cherry Blossom 10-miler in 46.… now they have a Becky Lyne running 1:58 for the 800 who is a school teacher. This was the first club I ever ran for… a small but great team.
She has been hopping along since the Olympics so it is good to hear that Mighty Margaret Okayo is sitting out this year to properly heal up her calf. Yesterday morning it was the Prison Group -- we lost one of the regulars from the group, Isidoro. I asked one of the guys why and he said, “Broke some rules, don’t know the full story..” But gained a new runner, called Drago. Drago said, “I thought this would be too easy for me, but I killed!” That’s the spirit, kill or be killed…
Other philanthropic news we hear the Robin Hood Foundation made over $50-million the other night to help New York City’s needy. Amazing!
Great Stance by the World Majors -- "once convicted of a drug violation, you've lost the opportunity to run in our individual events in the World Marathon Majors," which include the New York City, Chicago, London, Boston, and Berlin Marathons.” Mary Wittenberg.Catherine Ndereba, outsprinted Susan Chepkemei to win the women's 10,000m as the Kenya Prisons Championships ended at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, 33:31.3 to 33:34.0. Anastasia Ndereba 34:38.3 was third, and #4 Helen Nzembi, 34:55.8 of the Kamba tribe.“The fourth place went to another TSA student, Emmiliana Juma..” from the race this week -- you can see her picking up shoes on this page. She is the girl in white on the lower right picture!Fave email of the day from ChuckyChina, “I am happy to be able to contribute something to your wonderful organization. On our trip to Kenya/Tanzania last year we saw some of the difficult conditions that so many people struggle with daily. I find it encouraging to know that your tremendous efforts are making a huge difference in their lives. Chuck” Our hero for the week!Other kudos goes to Jerry & Cara Macari of Urban Athletics for giving us Shoe Storage space on Madison Avenue -- they rock, and they have supported Shoe4Africa as long as I have asked them too.***Can you Bowl??***
The First Shoe4Africa Bowling Benefit! Mark your calendars now -- please support this event, and please go there wearing a Shoe4Africa T Shirt available exclusively at the Urban Madison Avenue Store! To be held on August 12th!
06/15
An outstanding and astonishing 1349 finishers (1,500 starters) at the Shoe4Africa Kondoa 5k race on Wednesday Morning! Tanzania’s largest ever women’s only road race!! Pictures coming soon!! Imagine this race was held in a small town, an area where there are scant female runners! They came from the hills, they came in buses.... This project is happening. The next race is coming this Saturday in Morocco.
A classic story; I am in the gym on the elliptical and Bernie the former NYRR Chairman comes up and waves his arms in the air. He is standing there in his socks, so I take off the headphones, “I gave my sneakers to the Shoe4Africa shoedrive at your party, and forgot until I got to the gym today!”
On Runner’s World -- Shoe4Africa Prize Money in Kenya Will Go 30 Places Deep. Shoe4Africa, which provides equipment and educational opportunities to young women in Africa, will stage a December road race in Kenya with a prize purse extending all the way to 30th place. The charity, headquartered in New York, also puts on races in Tanzania, Eritrea, and Morocco. "The idea behind Shoe4Africa is to give young talented women a future, and this can be in athletics or academically or both," claims Toby Tanser, the organization's founder and a "Runner's World" contributor.
More, allafrica.comBelfast athlete Gareth Turnbull is facing a possible two-year ban after a drugs test showed up higher than normal levels of testosterone….
Olympic 200m champion Veronica Campbell is outta action after suffering from a torn muscle in her thigh. 8-weeks is the guesstimate.
At the track -- Firstly they are thinking of closing the track for renovations! This is crazy -- the most popular time in the year?? Why can’t they wait until November when half the city stops running?
There is a meeting about it tonight--Lisa Donlan, Millrose AA Tel-212-677-9789 CB 3 Parks Committee Meeting on June 15 at 6:30 pm
at Village View Houses Community Room, (175 E. 4t ST (between 1st Ave & Ave. A).
Anyway -- Erin who was leading the group when she stepped up the speed ramp! Eileen who did really well to dig deep on a tough night, Jamie who is turning into a triathlete superstar -- she also borrowed my hair band and made it go round the track faster than it has ever been before, Doug who did well and is looking more ‘endurancified’ every week, Chuckychina who could do not wrong this week despite his plans to pack on another 20-lbs as he gave us a contribution to the Shoe4Africa fund! Luiz who ran controlled and steady and looked like he could give me ten secs per lap faster.
Commander Kevin better and better as he works off the Mac-o-fats, Adam with a speedy 400, Anil who knew the sell by date of everyone‘s shorts on the track, Danny the Dollarman who pushed well when he wanted, ML died gracefully, R2 picked up well, Scott on the mark, Cruiser--another week looking faster with a great 400 too, Masterblaster trying to blast down the recoveries, DavidP hopefully hamstring healed -- and our rep for the meeting today. Chad - welcome, Nancy Grapefruit “I warm up after at least one lap,” and she ran true to her word, Mary D great session did not give up and earned the stars, Evelyn Hotrod zipping and looking in need of the miles, Robin3 running within herself -- she can give me 10% more, Robin Serpentine a solid session, Shawn in the pea green, Arthur who ran like Arthur only on the last repeat, Nicole - welcome, and Ben who seemed in control. Twas a good night, everyone was super quite (for once) during boot camp.
Two local names at Grandma’s this weekend -- StuGlu, one of the city’s top master runners for the years he has been a master, and Sponsored by Urban Athletics running store with shoes John Henwood of New Zealand.Sleepy Sylvia in the press! Prison Champs, Finishing third in the 5000! She is back!! 1. Selina Kosgei 16:01.4
2. Edith Masai 16:01.7
3. Sylvia Kibet 16:06.1
4. Caroline Kwambai 16:19.4
5. Catherine Kirui 16:41.2More on Shoe4Africa -- we are sending some stuff for the blind athlete Lois Chelangat. I don’t think there is an Achilles Chapter in Kenya to date,so Shoe4africa will step in instead.Oft on the US roads, #3 in the Russian 5000m Champs --Viacheslav Shabunin RUS 13.58,49Diane Kenna -- Superstar-dot-com winning the Easter Marathon! Woowee. Congrats Diane!06/14
Rapido and Lornah.
Web site of the day can you guess the famous running link?
Karlskrona Folksam Grand Prix -- Great High Jump Linus Thörnblad 85 IFK Lund 2,31 #2 Stefan Holm 76 Kils AIK 2,28 and
Triple jump - 1 Christian Olsson 80 Örgryte IS 17,09 is back in form! The W1500 as the best distance race --
Meryem Kirouani Boucetta MAR 4.20,54 2 Flo Jonsson 78 Spårvägens FK 4.21,36 3 Annika Gerner 75 Spårvägens FK 4.28,50, And the 100H - Susanna Kallur 81 Falu IK 12,68 And we read, by Anders Lennart Julin (whose race I won a couple of times, he has a 10,000m event named after him and the prize is a red flour mixing bowl nailed onto a piece of wood) “Carolina Klüft, who has been living in Karlskrona for a couple of years, for once went almost unnoticed by the spectators as she ran just a relay leg and had the Javelin Throw as her only individual event. But the relay leg was as impressive as ever and the Swedish national team – which for the first time included Helsinki High Jump bronze medallist Emma Green on the anchor – missed the national record by just 0.25.”Talking to Benita Johnson -- can you guess her two favorite sports? One of which she’ll be watching on the box this Thursday.Dani Lachowicz is looking for volunteers for the Achilles race - phone 212-354-0300 over the August 5th & 6th weekend.The Need For Speed relay was this past weekend, and the Flyers had a team, “But we had six women.. So don’t think we won!” Told Lara. Apparently a group of Wall ST runners won the event. I remember I once ran for Denmark in a relay and at the exchange there was a special system (this is back in the pre-chip days) where you slid the arm band into a slot and got a magnetic recording. Well there was money on the line and I had the second leg, I took over in about 16-th place and ran like a demon with helter-skelter wheels.. All was fine until I got to the exchange -- I could not fit my damn slide thing into the magnetic strip…. It took me a minute, which in the heat of the moment of course felt like an hour, and cost me the CR on that leg.. Other great relay moments -- Running for my Swedish Team in the Dagsbladet Staffet (A big Stockholm, or the biggest, city center relay),and this relay had short fast legs (I was doing a 1500m leg) and I come flying down the hill only to find the ‘next’ man was not there, he was in the bushes getting changed.. luckily finishing getting changed… great fun.. I was sad when they sliced the Powerbar Central Park relay -- I went head to head with the CPTC team when Roland made a bet that four of them could not beat me over 20-miles.. The prize was I took them to breakfast, or they took me…. Had to win that one, have you ever seen how much runners eat? I remember the last 5-mile loop I was on fumes as I did the first lap rather too fast.. Youthful enthusiasm. Eileen at the Flyers, “I missed the weedding this weekend, I read on the invitations bring a fishing pole and your bathing costume.. Decided it was not for me!”Willie Mtolo, a former New York City Marathon champion who is now 42 years old will be running the Comrades… as will Amby Burfoot a former Boston Winner, “Though just for the journalists first hand story..” brave man.Talking RW another great interview by Peter Gambo with Nick Willis today, till noon.
06/13
(At Freihofers) “When it rains the Simba gets small and matted, shriveled in the rain.. But don’t think that is how she ‘really’ is.. When the weather comes good (NY Mini) Then the Simba gets big and runs how she really can…” Lornah Simba Kiplagat.
To send the Shoes we collected at the Shoe4Africa party it will be costing $1000 in postage. So a big thanks to all who donated toward the postage!! Thanks to Nina who was boxing up the shoes, “Now I see what it is all about, this is hard work, and very time consuming.. The line in the post office was an hour long.” That‘s the good things in life worth fighting and working for, any volunteers for manual labor please apply here!
World Silver medalist Isabella Ochichi is the latest to join Shoe4Africa, and she will front the event in October in Kisii, Kenya.
Stuart A from CPTC sent in this picture, with the explanation that this must be the reason why Lornah won the Mini…(ed's note -- we took down the picture after seeing what it looked like on the page, too bad, it was good.) Lornah says if she does not win Steamboat then I will also be blamed, "For making me eat so much food in New York."
Also congrats to Devon and Noah from that very same club who are getting married. No date as yet, but one can be sure it won‘t conflict with any major running event.
I got stuck in the Puerto Rican parade hoohar the other day. I thought I had avoided it as I was in Vermont, then late in the evening I wanted to drop off a box of shoes for Pieter & Lornah to take back to Kenya.. So I was pedaling down to midtown with two heavy bags on the handlebars and I hit the dregs of the parade -- food and garbage all over the roads, people drunk in the road, cars swerving and speeding, motorcycles mounting the sidewalks, droves of police.. It was a zoo and the crowds.. It was a nightmare! Plus as the bags were so big I could not use my one brake so I kept on having to run into the kerb to slow the bike down… Ah the trials and tribs!
Yesterday then it was training with the Simba! She did her last hard session before she runs the 4-miles on Saturday.. And it would not surprise me one iota if she breaks the world record at Steamboat based on how she was looking…. Even the observers sitting on nearby benches were impressed by the Simba. Following which we went to a Thai restaurant on 56th between 6th & 7th Aves -- I had a nice coconut Soup as a drink, then Grilled Salmon -- it was nice, but not substantial, and the rice was so-so (as white boiled rice tends to be). I asked them to perk the rice up a bit, but it was not possible.
Starbucks would like it to be noted that he actually was in the leaad of the warm up and cool down, and ran an hour in total... Arms akimbo as he was running up a hill we could not photograph the historic moment unfortunately, though Lornah recalled, "There was one time I had a bad stomach, and he ran away from me, he did not wait!"
Following which we went to midtown Starbucks for Coffee, and The Simba sat down in the coffee baskets.. “That was a good training session, now I can rest!”
06/12<>Shoe4Africa in the Nation, Kenya’s Biggest Newspaper!
Shoe4Africa races coming up this weekend in Morocco, and in Tanzania! More press clippings to come.
Today a chance to buy Shoe4Africa T shirts at the Urban Athletics Madison Avenue store and meet Lornah Kiplagat!
Leppin announce that certain products will be sold and a percentage will go to Shoe4africa!Watching the first World Cup game with the German socialites of New York City… I had a great time as everyone in the food line was going for the German Sausage (super yuck) and nobody for the breads! They had these mini loaves with raisins in(!) And the German Beer well no complaints there. The poor Costa Rican team got hammered, and the worst part was the drab commentary with less passion than a flat tire by an American TV crew… Very few people actually looked interested in the game and I was most upset not tyo win in the raffle… they had superb prizes to give out and all I got was a luggage name tag that was a hand-me down gift from a gay guy standing behind us (figured that bit out when Tattoed Terry asked if they were friends and we got cahoots of giggles). A huge German guy the size of a giraffe with a neck as wide as a the widescreen TV had to go and stand right in front of us… well until a barmaid stepped on his foot, he took it as a come on and followed her to wherever she was going…Following that I went in hunt of Gete Wami because somebody had to. Following that it was Denise Volume 11’s birthday so I went and sung happy birthday to her -- she’d just got back from her Kid’s track meet where little Demi placed 5th in the 300m!!! Armed Forces Champs 10,000m 1. John C. Korir 28:36.1 (this guy always runs great in Kenya, yet rarely performs to his fab standard overseas)
2. Sammy Kipketer 28:44.5
3. Salim Kipsang 29:01.6... And another ‘name’ - 3000m SC
1. Jeruto Kiptum 10:54.9 of Iten.
“Lornah won today for the third time the COF Mini 10 K in a time of 31.27. 2nd was Jelena Prokopchuka, 3rd Gete Wami and 4th Benita Johnson. Lornah was in the lead the whole race but with her was a small group of women up to 6 K. At 6 K she started to push the pace and was able to get away….” Both Lornah & Starbucks were over the moon -- ask them about the race tonight at the UPTOWN store.
It was a great day and so nice to see many familiar faces out there too! Beth M from NJ, Kyomi, Stace-the-Ace, Judith from the Flyers and those were only the first four people I saw cycling onto CPW…. Erin from the Flyers PR‘s for the second consec race (in 7-days)…
Standing by the Drugs testing tent there was some VERY strange things going on with one athlete. No comments as yet…… I better shaddup. The nice thing about the mini is seeing all the people together -- Bill Staab and RLX arm in arm (photo proof coming soon), some fab local performances by Alemtsehay, Sarah S both of WTC, and Rapido… loads of runners under 40-minutes. The local age group award winners: Alemtsehay Misganaw 25 WTC NY 34:10, Anne Kugler 37 UATH NY 35:26, Olena Plastinina 42 WS NY 37:50, Gordon Bakoulis 45 MCNY NY 39:32, Kathryn Martin 54 NY 39:11
Sonia O'Sullivan is hoping to compete in the marathon at this summer's European Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden. The 10,000m is looking the Queen Event on the women’s side.Merlene Ottey, 46-year-old, who has not competed since the 200m semi-final at the Athens Olympics, battled a strong headwind to win the 100m in 11.94 seconds in Spain. Amazing.Urban in England, “Wow man, pretty poor show at the AAAs 10000m, 38 year old Dominic Bannister won it, mid 29s.
Lobb didn't crack the 30 mins in 4th. African pace maker jogged around and was polite enough
to stop with 800 meter to go :) Women 10000m pretty easy win for Hayley Yelling. Hayley
stopped twice doing her laces, mid 32 mins just inside the European qualifier. Once saw the name
Collette Fagan on your site, she dropped out of the race. There was also a Swedish lass in the
800s running for Sparvagen Annika Gerner? or Marlin Brown? Impressive running in the women
S/C setting a new record 9:48, Jo Ankier wasn't running. Adam Bowden also ran a strong S/C.” Thanks Urban.At Turquoise Restaurant on 81st ST the other night… the waitress comes up and tells us, “It’s a bit boring you all ordering the same thing, don’t you want to all try some different fish?” -- Like, No! I mean I eat what is on my plate I don’t eat what is on every one else’s, so what does it matter if we all order the same fish??
From Arien, thanks! “Hi Toby, Here some news from Holland: On Saturday was a big half marathon in Holland, Zwolle. Jason Mbote was again very strong and breaking course record of Peter
Kiprotich (1.02.30 - 2004) with the time of 1.02.24.
Here are the results for the men:
1 Jason Mbote 1:02:24
2 Jamal Baligha 1:03:20
3 Charles Koech 1:03:35
4 Saji Bouazza 1:05:32
5 Luc Krotwaar 1:05:43
6 Hugo van den Broek 1:06:18
“For the lady's Sharon was winning, she coming very strong!!!!
Jamjar was having hard race and become 4 th place.
Here are the results for the lady's:
1 Sharon Tavengwa 1:15:01
2 Beata Rakonczai 1:16:06
3 Nadja Wijenberg 1:17:57
4 Madgaline Chemjor 1:19:45” Thanks Arien.
Luc, Sharon, and Jason.
At Gateshead -- the 100m record is equaled --Powell Asafa JAM 9.77 & for the women - Edwards Torri USA 11.06... W800--Jepkosgei Janeth KEN 1:57.22... W3000- Dibaba Tirunesh ETH 8:42.04 10 2 Adere Berhane ETH 8:44.82 8 3 Dibaba Ejegayehu ETH 8:46.0206/10
Estupendo Rapido comes to the finish!
06/09
Thanks for all the emails about the party last night -- the mailbox was overflowing, and as Jacqueline H. pointed out, “the night was truly overwhelming, to see how many people came out to support shoe4africa (and given the weather, it should count as double points)… Yep, imagine…. Shawn Emailed to say, “Aren't you the party animal! I was at the party last night but couldn't work my way through the crowd to say Hi. That was great.” Hm, not sure how to take that… However as an inaugural party to have Jeanette Lobel The founder of Stila , Anthony Edwards, caroline Bierbaum, Lornah Kiplagat, Javier Timerman ,son of the Nobel prioze winner Jacobo Timerman, Narcisco Rodriguez, Michael Kaye (both of the fashion world)…. And Nina Kuscsik, George Hirsch, Mary Wittenberg.. I mean the list was endless of really nice people.. As Bernie the Former Chairman of the NYRR said, “Toby, you know so many damn nice people!” Nicely put, thanks too to Bernie for being there….
The Next Lornah Event is of course the Mini Tomorrow -- Go out and support, or run! Then…
Urban Athletics Party Monday Night
And on the track -- first up in the morning I thought there’d be no one turning up for the Prison Group, but they were all there bar one! Awesome, and they are running well - improving!
On the flip side in the PM downtown track --Adam asking if I can give Patricia extra laps for some reason, Toni, Arthur working well with Kristin who duid a quick shoe change due to blisters on the run, Luiz on his mission, Commander Kevin - back from a road trip “where I ate nothing but Crispy Chicken from Mc Donalds,” Danny The Dollarman flying, Mike still out in Lane two, Erin, Atilla who has been chosen for the HBO 32-peoplke from 32 countries worlds soccer documentary film, Trackman dave, Anil with a flying last lap that was somehow was timed on a cellphone, Doug, Risa, Michelle from the Flyers -- I must stop experimenting with different shoes!, Mary down with a car service that made here super popular come hometime, Clark, Will and Vanessa-- she gave me her ipod, and then asked, “how many laps??” hearing the answer, “Can I have my ipod back?”…and Patricia doing the laps. Luckily not too many issues this week. A quiet night before the Mini…
Speaking of the mini I was at the press conference earlier, I was hoping to meet Wami but she is not coming in till late…. Had a good chat with Peter Gambo and the Voice of the NYRR though.. And speaking of which
We forget to mention it was The Pope’s 60th Birthday yesterday! When asked if he would celebrate by running the NYC Marathon Mr. Allan Steinfeld replied “It is imminent, to run the race with Grete, but not this year….” 06/08 Thanks so much to all the people who came to the inaugural shoe4africa party last night -- the place was absolutely packed to the rafters the whole night long (by the doorman's account over 200). We had compliments the entire night about it being the best running charity event of the year which I pass straight on to our incredible hosts Joy & Sam Dushey who went up and beyond the mark. Lornah’s speech was fab.. And the list of people there was wonderful! I could not believe it. So nice to meet so many friends and also new faces too. Too many people to thank individually, so I thank all who came! Tremendous. The film we were showing will be uploaded onto the web very shortly so watch this space!
From Ariel, We talk about them, then we show them -- here’s The Jamjar from Kenyah and Sharon from ZimZim (ps those are not spelling mistakes, I think Kenya should add a H, and Zimbabwe should should be zimzim land). We read, “Sharon is doing very good at this moment and Magdeline is just for tworaces in Holland (last weekend 10k race and coming weekend half marathon organized by Gerard). Both ladies, Jason and Luc will run this race. After that race Magdeline is going back to Germany.” Thanks.At the Memorial Primo Nebiolo Soi Edwin Cheruiyot wins the 3000m KEN 7:39.74... For the women there was a 200m & a 400m Hurdles race only! That’s bad!Gotta love it, “The rest of the world (and Queens) gets ready for the World Cup which begins on Friday.” Quote in the paper.10,000m 32:34.06 ran by Evy Palm of SWE aged 46. She rocked!06/07
****Today The Shoe4Africa Event on Park Avenue****
From the NYRR e-flash: “Look around on race day to see whos helping at the start, along the course, and at the finish. Volunteers are people who look a lot like you--and for good reason. They are just like you--people committed to fitness and running. Take the extra step and volunteer for a few events this year. Youll be inspired by what you see and do. Its an important way to show your support for the sport. Contact NYRR Volunteer and Community Services Manager --
Steve Boland at NYRR for more information: sboland@nyrr.org or 212.423.2205. Defo worth doing for, at least, a race this summer -- it is a fun day.
In the mailbag, “Jambo, Chemjor was already making her comeback at wurzburg, germany (30th april). She finished there in a time of 35.??, one week later she was running 25 km de Berlin, Germany. Greetings Martijn Venhuizen. And Holland is becoming more and more orange. Waiting for the things to come at Germany. For the first time in history the soccer team below 21 years became European Champion so maybe....... I can celebrate the winning of the Dutch Team during my holiday at Nyahururu, Kenya” Thanks -- Yes the Jamjar is making strides again.Haile Gebrselassie’s next marathon will be the 33rd real,- Berlin Marathon on 24 September it was announced today. And Filbert Bayi, Sec. General of NOC, the former mile & 1500m World Record Holder will be at the Tanzanian Shoe4Africa race we are happy to announce!!!We hear from Diane K. on her way to Easter Island, “On my way to a wine tasting at Concha y Toro vineyard!”
AT Freihofers - controversy continues to reign as Race Director Promised Drugs testing to ensure a fair field -- This was done as last year he celebrated the participation of Drugs cheat Asmae Legz. So this year PRIOR to the race he announces to the field there will be no drugs testing -- What is the purpose to that? Why would first anyone recant on a promise, and secondly why tell the field before the event there will be no drugs test? The mind truly boggles on this one! Is this a step forward to combat the drugs issue? Read More. Starbucks asks, “Is this guy doing a good job as a race director?? You think we will ever go back to Freihofers when they do this?”So the continued saga -- I take my $5 to get a new Gym card, and “Sorry it is now $15 for a new card.” Wow, what a price increase! For the first time at the gym I used the TV audios on the treadmill as I had forgotten to charge the ipod.. And can you believe the headphone jacks are fixed exactly to the right hip on a bar -- I mean how the flip are you supposed to swing your flippin arm and not pull out the cable? I had to run like a one armed bandit….
AIMS/ASICS WORLD ATHLETE OF THE YEAR AWARD
World Marathon Champion Jaouad Gharib was presented with a "Golden Shoe" in Lisbon on 24 March 2006 in recognition of his achievements during 2005. In Helsinki last summer he defended the title of World Marathon title that he first won in Paris in 2003. Earlier in 2005 he had recorded a time of 2:07:49 in finishing second (2:07:49) in the London Marathon.“Covered Bridges Half Marathon 1st Place Female Cindy Pomeroy 1:23:05 1st M6069 John Samsel 1:28:36-- the speedy couple.North County News 5K - Ted Turner, 23 15:27 & Julie Heaphy, 24 18:31.. With the ageless Greg Diamond, 49 17:43 in fourth and Madame Mileage out there, I wonder if she brought me back a muffin? Eve Bois, 35 21:32 This race is famous for its post race muffins, so they tewll me, I ate the bagels when I was there.Saturday: Few showers. Highs in the low 70s and lows in the upper 50s. MINI Weather check.
06/06 Out West --Ambesse Tolossa of Ethiopia won the ninth annual Rock 'n' Roll Marathon on Sunday. Tolossa, 27, covered the 26.2- mile course in a time of 2:10:08. On the women's side, Kenya's Alice Chelangat captured her second Rock 'n' Roll title, winning in 2:28:21. Meeanwhile over in Holland
Zwitersloot Dak Run 10-K 1. Nadia Ejjafini 80 BRN 32:42
2. Flomena Chepchirchir 81 KEN 32:43
3. Genet Getaneh 86 ETH 33:34
4. Sharon Tavenga 83 ZIM 34:14 (of the HATC team!)
5. Magdaline Chemjor 78 KEN 34:27 (Jamjar’s comeback as a supermom and the men 1. Jason Mbote 77 KEN 28:31 (Who also used to be at the HATC in Iten and is now with Gerard who emailed to say he is coming from Holland to help with the Shoe4africa race in Kenya in December!)
2. Raji Assefa 86 ETH 28:52
3. Charles Koech 83 KEN 28:55Soon it is time for the Shoe4Africa party -- Be sure to watch all three parts of the amazing video footage we have.
“With more than 125 pilsners and lagers and bocks, along with a designated beer sommelier to explain them all, Cafe d'Alsace is New York's newest paradise for beer lovers…”@ the U.S. Women's Half-Marathon Championship in Kansas --Annie Bersagel 23 LAKEVILLE, MN 1:14:36 won from Jenny Crain 38 MILLWAUKEE, WI 1:14:45 and Zoila Gomez 26 ALAMOSA, CO 1:15:3006/05
Deadman Todd asked for a picture of Meseret Defar, so here’s one! The Mizuno Queen, along with Tulu and Dibaba. The World record holder in the 5000, 5k road, and the Olympic Champion at 5000m
I ran with Anthony Edwards a loop in Central Park the other day -- watch this space for ‘Dr. Mark Greene’ & meself to get a website together about Natural Health backed by CBS… should be fav for 2007! Then after that it was downtown to hang out with Meseret, but details of what she was saying will come out on Runner’s World today, we think, so I'll sve myself a double type...
Diane Kenna the shy one! One in a hundred! A winner of the New Balance world wide competition -- you rock Diane, well done.. And where is the Queen of the Harriers? She‘s off to the Easter Island to run a marathon!
Alexander ran by, “I am trying to grow a new foot…”
I met Sid Howard and after congratulating him on all his amazing accomplishments since the last time a saw him a couple of months ago he says, “And I see from your times that you are doing great!” I’m like Sid, what almanac are you reading? My last race was a lifetime worst.” Sid, always the optimist smiles back, “So you can only come up right?”
And a big congrats to Luis, NYH, who we hear won Prize money and placed well at Cow Harbor!! Way to go Luis.
Over in TZ Singadore 10km --
1.Joseph Mateo, muyanji, 29.56.37
2.Elia Yona, Muyanji, 30.06.07
3.Joshua Balohho, Mbulu, 31.01.62 (this guy used to be in Sweden)
4.Mohamed Ramadhani, Ihanja, 31.33.98 and women -- 1.Paschal (like the name) Dawite, Mbulu, 42.24.26
2.Mwahija Jumanne, Ihanja, 44.33.13
3.Rehema Nathan, Ihanja, 45.03.55
"Iten - Ethiopia 1 - 0 !!! Songkok won from Bekele today. 12:55 ! Just got the message from Jeroen who is in Oslo with Choge and Songkok. Choge ran a bad mile." From StarbucksQuote of the day -- "He couldn't pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were printed on the heel".
From the Captain -- funny I was reading this before I realized it was supposed to be a ‘test’ -- perhaps that is a sign of how badly I type emails myself!
“fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too
Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55% of plepoe can
i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!From Starbucks, “Iten - Ethiopia 1 - 0 !!! Songkok won from Bekele today. 12:55 ! Just got the message from Jeroen who is in Oslo with Choge and Songkok. Choge ran a bad mile.” And the results -- Oslo GP
M5000- Songok Isaac Kiprono KEN 12:55.79 20 2 Bekele Kenenisa ETH 12:58.22 16 3 Kigen Mike Kipruto KEN 12:58.58
M-mile Kipchirchir Alex KEN 3:50.32 20 2 Heshko Ivan UKR 3:50.89 16 3 Komen Daniel Kipchirchir KEN 3:52.41 (Choge Augustine Kiprono KEN 4:02.25)
Jepkosgei Janeth KEN 2:00.51
And the best race of the meet we think -- W5000
Dibaba Tirunesh ETH 14:30.40 20 2 Dibaba Ejegayehu ETH 14:33.52 16 3 Masai Edith KEN 14:33.84 (Kenyan record) 4 Ngetich Priscah Jepleting KEN 14:35.30 12 5 Melkamu Meselech ETH 14:37.44 10 6 Bati Gelete Burika ETH 14:40.92
Anyway up in Freihofers, From Starbucks, “Lornah today finished 3rd in the Freihofer's 5 K in Albany, NY. She ran 15.47 in heavy rain. The first 3 K she ran with Benita Johnson, at 3 K Natalya Berkut joined them. Lornah had to let them go at 4 K and Benita Johnson won the race, 2 seconds ahead of Berkut.” They are looking forward to getting to NYC (“No good restaurants in Albany“), and are moving up the proposed travel day by four days to be in the Smoke. “Lornah had a very heavy training week last week, and with the travel, press obligations and racing was not at her best.. We’ll see in the Mini.” Congrats to Erin who PR‘d up there!Stockholm Marathon -- Anna Rahm1:17/1:19 two loop course to win in 2:36:37 for the home crowd, and Phillip Bandawe from Zimbabwe took the men’s in 2:17A double blow at the Vinegar Factory! I bought some bagels and get to the counter, “Three bagels?” she asks looking in the bag… “No, “ I say, “Four.” I get home to discover I actually did buy three.. And then to rub the salt in the cut one of my cinnamon raisins did not have one single raisin in the bagel! What a swizz!News from Amber in Iten, “Iten is good the rains have come and the Maize is growing so everyone is very happy. The Posta has been repainted and some of the pot holes between Eldoret and Iten have been patched. Joyce, the baboon that lived at Kerio View has moved to a wildlife sanctuary in Kisumu. She bit a number of the Quatari athletes when they were in Iten training. I personally believe that Joyce just loves Kenya and does not like athletes that go to the Quatari team.”3 people two bottles of red wine, chicken dishes (a breast) no appetizers or dessert at L' absinthe on the Upper east Side, $1900 -- only in Manhattan, and thank goodness I was not one of the three! Whilst this was going on I was in Brooklyn learning about things my friends from a couple of decades are now up to…06/02 Win some lose some; at the gym there is this guy who always talks 100-words to the minute, for the next 15, so I tell him, "Sorry gotta rush.." and he says, "Doesn't pay to rush young man!" -- I discover I have lost my gym card inthe hasty exit (another $5 penalty).. then an instructor at the gym says to me, "I need someone to practice pilates on for 30-hours in June/July to complete my examination, can I use you?" Hmm..."I hear that Deena is very competitive and looking for the challenge," Milde said. "Noguchi versus Deena might be a more interesting race. It would be tough for us to get all three, but it would be a great race, wouldn't it?" NY Times talks marathons. Personally I think if I was a race director of a marathon and looking for that dream field I would go -- Paula, Deena, Noguchi, Ndereba, and Takahashi… that’s a head to head match up. And let‘s be honest -- there is only one stage for a race like that -- in the capital of the world - NYC.Over in Sweden they have the national champs every year being the same race --Stockholm, and they offer odds on who will win the title -- Anders is the sentimental fave--Said Regragui 1,50
Alfred Shemweta 2,90
Kent Claesson 4,50
Marek Poszepczynski 10,00
Anders Szalkai 12,00
Peter Koskenkorva 15,00
Patrik Gustafson 25,00
Jonas Colting 25,00
Jonas Larm 40,00
Runar Höiom 40,00
Erik Öhlund 60,00
Jonas Buud 80,00
Måns Höiom 100,00 Up at the Prison work out, “toby can you come any earlier?” Not unless someone here steals me a Ducati or Laverda… oops perhaps not the politically sound thing to say… I have to get from Park Ave & 72nd at 7AM to Riverbank Park at 140th & the Hudson in ten minutes! I made it today in twenty… Anyway a big thanks to Urban Athletics who donated 16 Shirts for the guys yesterday! Here’s some of the crew doing Boot Camp exercises!
Bislett Games on Friday June 2 with Big names --Bekele and Dibaba
R2 - todays herto for her S4A workings! And on the Hill that R2 loves; Deadman Todd asks, “Anything from the shhop?” So I say something healthy..” He says, Like Pretzels? I am.. Like a flippin Raisin. He says can’t get them at CVS, so Chubbs says, “Wghat’s that grocery store right next to CVS? So he says “Okay, what do you want Chubbs?” So Chubbs says, “I want a donut with the Diet Nazi is here so bring me some celery.”
Meanwhile the athletes were running up and down the hill;
But with some time to spare I was trying to sell banana skins,a bunch for a dollar with no takers (hey you can use them as cooking pan liners)…. Okay, Will the flandering Scotsman (will be the Flying when he has finished with our program), was taking so long to arrive we wondered was he eating on the way up or dozing off.. Parks takes off his Shirt, Todd says, “There’s another sports bra I can sell.” Danny the Dollarman lapped Adam, but Adam refused to believe it despite the fact Danny was in front of him then appeared from behind too traveling twice as fast. The Dollarman was wearing Chubby’s singlet (hmm) that is at least three sizes too big for him… Erin, “I remember my first Toby experience, he sent me an email -- Well done you did really well. Two minutes later I got an email from him, sorry Erin I sent that last email to the wrong person…” There you go -- honesty never goes amiss!
Flipping looked like rain, “Cancha hurry up with this running?” Didn’t want to tell the Boys I was worried that October’s edition of Vogue was going to get wet in the rain.
Phone message --Aol’s free online service is ready to help now, we offer 24-hr phone support so we are there ready to assist you? Then how come every time I phone up I am on hold for 30-mins? So today‘s issue -- affecting “A number of customers“ so of course me -- all the mail disappeared. I get this AOL rep on the phone and I ask her, “So basically you are telling me there is nothing you can do?” “Yes Sir“ “Then why have I been on hold for 34-minutes and been talking to you for an additional 19-mins?” “Because.” “Because what?” “There are certain things we have to say.” “Could you have told me in one sentence, your mail is down there is nothing we can do like 45-mins ago?” “We have certain…” “like all your offer and promotions?” “Yes.” So I add, “Glad I have been recording this phonecall... Can I cancel my service?” She hangs up! Go figure. Jesus, three days of problems with the computer? What is happening?? So I redial and finally get a technician who knows how to go about things -- he‘s from Bangor, India, it as 11:50 PM over there and he was working till 3:30-AM -- what a shift! He sorted my probes out, and finally everything looks like it is working normally now!Met Sherlock in the park yesterday -- good to see him. He is a lifeguard at a pool where a friend of mine swims so I always hear bits and bobs about him. Sherlock actually only lives three minutes walk from mew, but we rarely meet.. So a beer is on the cards-- He is from the Dominican and good friends with Raphael Luna who is also from there, and runs for the SRS team. Sherlock was entering the World Rubrix Cube fixing Champs the last time we talked…Here's a link to a 360 degree panorama view from top of Everest.
Use your mouse to drag the picture around 360. Kool, I think this is as close as I need to get.And here is a request from Ivonne, a blind fast runner from the Achilles; “I am wondering if you may know someone, from the Flyers (or another team), who might be up for doing some speed work with me, and possibly guiding me in some races. I tried a couple of speed workouts with Moving Comfort recently, which while painful, went fairly well. The problem I'm having is finding someone who can guide me. I do have a couple of friends on the Moving Comfort team, but I don't want to jeopardize their workout in any way-- and if they run the whole workout with me, then I feel that they're not getting in their own workout. Unfortunately, there aren't fast volunteers at Achilles at the moment either, which is why Andy and I decided to write to you. I'm what Andy now calls "Achilles' Problem Child" because some volunteers now don't even want to run with me, because they say I'm too fast for them.
“The last two Tuesdays, at the Achilles workouts, I have found myself not being able to either do a speed workout, or running under 8's b/c no volunteer is able to do that. I guess I have had a pretty good year, seeing my race times improve, etc. But now I need to find other people who are at my running level, or even a bit stronger than I am. So, if you have any thoughts about who we can ask, or if you think you might be able to talk to a couple of people for me, that would be awesome.” Any helpers??
Any competitorsd? The NYRR Track night will return --“We will have three (3) events. They will be June 6, 13, 20. The website is being updated with the information and will be up by tomorrow. The events will be the same as last year and in the same order. 6:30-7:00 will be warm-up; 7:00-8:30 will be competition, and 8:30-9:00 will be cool down.” So go out there and run track. 06/01
Running out of….“U.S. residents have until 11:59 p.m. EDT, June 1, to submit their applications for the ING New York City Marathon 2006. Entrant information, including the application, is available on the www.nyrr.org site.Lornah is 59% fit for Freihofers.. We hear.. Moments after Asmae LegEpo announced she is 60% fit for the race. It should be a fun race! Odds? Simba wins.com. Starbucks loves Albany, “Can you believe this is the best hotel I have ever stayed in? It has a Starbucks inside the hotel.” Is that a limp we see now on the Simba - 58%? Bad news that Hilda Crazy Kibet cannot make it over -- she is badly injured, and after starting the year so well too -- she is running only 30-mins every three days and willhave an MRI next week for the knee. Poor Hilda.Also a classic race - Ridgewood on Mem day: The best race is always the 5k --Joshua Kemei West Chester,PA 22 M 14:25 and Eunice Jepkirui West Chester,PA 22 F 16:39 were da winners with second in Alemtsehay Misganaw 16:55.. Earlier she had won the 10k in 34:48 for another WTC win! Alene Reta Nyc, NY 24 M 29:22 winning the men’s 10k and he too was #2 in the 5k 14:47Big Thanks to Nike-CPTC’s Kate Irvin for Shoes & clothes for S4A!At the Store -- Jeremy “I’m in trouble at the downtown store for airing some views.. Some people might call it gossip…” Deadman Todd, “I wish I had not bought this Dell…” Flip his laptop is so big it belongs on a Vegas buffet table, room for your sandwiches in there… as he said, “I never saw it before I bought it…” How did we guess. Anil, “I’m doing doubles, I’m training for Beijing.”
At the gym -- I was talking to a guy who was telling me over in Eastern Europe the old Rabbi cantor’s sing prayer verses instead of talking, he then begins to sing…. Not your usual locker room singing -- but what is usual? Coconuts and and a bed of sand according to some.Lap confusion as Paul Koech gets ditched in the steeplechase as they ring the bell a lap earlier and he stops! Then the same happens in the men’s 3000m -- Ostrava Grand Plunker?Get this Verizon support (thankfully no longer needed) “We will call between 8-AM and 5-PM,and that is as close as we can tell you.” The things they don’t tell you at the sign up!Track Night-- The three Robins (R2, Rockin’, and Serpentine), Peter2 “Gonna run bad because I am sick”, Fred - The night’s hero - he did the entire workout THEN went to Karate class for 90-minutes! Eileen came down and rocked, Christine (Jamie’s friend) zipping fast, Christine Cruiser again getting stronger the longer we went, Michael from Kellog out in lane two, Paul K who never has once complained at a session or the added bonus since the year 2000!
Adam ran very well for his step up in gears, Scott ran steady, Ben was strong on the money, Doug hanging on the whisps of the ‘moon, Henry from Iowa going great for his first time, A bare chested runner whose name I don’t know who ran awesome for his first track sess in over 2-years, a guy in red, a woman in white -- all three came and asked if they could join in,, Queen Diane having a so so night -- I know she can give me more, Luiz Mr Steady reeling them all in, Craig from Oz from stunned and slid into the last mile with fire n’ thunder, Mary D “I‘m learning how out of shape I am!” thought ya did fine meself, Trackman Dave still troubled by the hamstring, Arthur -- not looking his usual self, Anne -- welcome back on track, good to have her zippin' around, Nance Grapefruit -- missing Michelle, but clocking the repeats with a nail and hammer, Chubby -- God Bless him, came down and led them out like a trooper from Brasil in a banana field as the legs buckled, but did great, Kevin the Commander back from CA and getting settled into speed again, Jamie running super smooth and strong, ChuckyChina-- I looked at him and he immediately said, “My wife cooks for me every night.. What can I do?” Didn‘t say a word, and MasterBlaster flying as she knows how -- Twas a tough session; after 4-miles total of fast running I added the bonus, an extra surprise mile repeat… and Chubbs was the first to the line! Here he is leading the A group, and see how he has spread out the field in the first 200m, The B group were at this stage waiting to go and chase!
Riding down to the track at 100mph down Second Avenue I can see this huge van is going to cut me off, so I swing my head and the guy leans out of the window, “No worries, jump in front” he yells, So I do, but have to now go at 110mph to stay in front - bloody killed me for about five blocks before I could swing a lane shift… then going down the East River I get a fishing rod in the face as a guy swings his rod backwards without looking….. Then a police car pulls out of the gasoline station at 23rd against a stop light and I have to do a turn on a drawing pin to avoid whacking him….just as the world can not get an weirder an Orthodox Jew dressed in curls, whites and blacks starts running along side me as I am passing the skinny part of the path down there and asks, “Are you called David Katz the entertainer?”
Talking entertainment I am glad to report the last minute Shoe4Africa video/film project is going bopper lopper well - Kool. Watch out for it to be posted here after the initial showing at the party next week -- which reminds me track next week is on Thursday!
05/31
The whole flippin morning of yesterday, from before 7am till noon was spent with Verizon and AOL trying to figure out what was wrong - re-starting, testing, re-installing, setting up, and dealing (of course) with different tech support people, repetitions, “Sir I am going to have to ask for assistance on this one, Sir I don’t know” I am why am I phoning these people? At 1pm it was finally fixed -- did I mention I also burnt my bread I was baking as I was distracted by doing something before the batteries died on the phone and I got disconnected (as it was beeping).. Anyway.. Long and short at 2pm Verizon phone up to say, “Just following up, and we’re resetting you back to normal…” and before I could do anything they’d knocked me off again.. Well currently installing AOL again as we had to rip that out thinking it might have been an issue (due to tech man #3 at 11-AM).. So now with poppy seeds, and honey I also have burnt crust over my keyboard…. Still in shock it took so long to fix! (and ing!) I feel like a day has been robbed from me! Funny I was going to go running with Chubbster but he also got caught up in something or other…
Marty emails, “Is the half going to happen in August? Yes! August 27th!The anniversary run this weekend - no longer kilometers, tis now miles -- 4.8 of them.. Sign up for a guaranteed(?) PR at the distance!Meseret Defar ran 14.35.37 to win the 5000m intensely -- what can she do in NYC on June 03rd??
Justin Gatlin has pulled out of the June 11 Gateshead meet, with the haed2head against Powell after the two ‘especially’ did not meet (separate heats) at the Pre Meet to gain ’heat’ for this event. Go figure!Carmen Troncoso of the Fat Tuesday’s on Peter G/RW today, nice read -- she’ll be at Freihofers with the Simba!Costa Rica are playing Germany on June 09th in the opener of the world cup -- support the underdogs?From Devon, CPTC’s Mike T. won the Masters Men with a very fast time of 16:03! (At Ridgewood)….. Faster than Chubbster, maybe this will lodge him into the training mode…. Last week were in the park and Mike came to chat, Chubbs says, “Let me know if you want to join me for training…” Now begging the Q can Chubbs keep up? I know I can’t. Congrats to Mike! Funnily enough now I think about it I ran this ran WITH Mike last year! And he nipped me at the finish too if I remember correctly..Starbucks & The Simba are in America! They are in Albany… Erin is going up there to race Friehofers too -- Good luck!!, Joe brought me a loaf of bread he baked to the Flyers work out, made with coconut oil(!) (Did I mention I told my coaches that it is nice to bribe me with food products?) thus Eileen said she can make a mean Italian sauce - as her boyfriend is opening a bar she also says she can make a mean drink too, And me, well I was thinking of picking up some beer, then I saw James and got distracted. Everyone was having great fun at the workout and the top notch goodness is that everyone seems to talk less and push harder.. And get more from the sessions -- I saw people run last night like I have never seen them run before! Chubbs is going to donates some shirts for the Shoe4Africa Prison Training Group-- press ganged him, Shoe4Africa is going to do the Last Ten this year.. And start by taking the NY Flyers traditional group over to our last ten ( as they do it 7-days prior, and that is too late we think)-- this way they’ll provide the brunch and I’ll do the run organizing -- sounds like a good blend.Early this morning --Trisha Meili will be on Katie Couric’s special morning around 7:30. - Trisha is the Central Park Jogger, and the Achilles TC Chairman.“I stumbled upon your real business when searching for new products:” Eldo Lise writes in.05/29
Okay Steve Jobs, listen to your users, this is what TGV wants, and as he buys cars at the rate of three or four per year you could put him into the bracket of being a perfect customer, “What I would LOVE is a nano built into the shoe with a bluetooth connection to the headphones so I could listen without carrying the nano in my hand or pocket and not having any dangling wires. Oakley sort of tried that with the Thumps but they were painful and had very inadequate storage space. My wireless idea with the nano built into the sneaker is the way to go. I need to file a patent QUICK!!!!!”
22:38 -- that is the 8k split for Gebrselassie in his Half Marathon WR! The WR for 8km is 22:02
Life in Iceland as a runner, From Frida, “I was going to run today at the 10000m nordic challenge here in Iceland but I got a sore throat and had to cancel it, very disappointing, but it was not wise because it has been very cold here in Iceland and a very cold wind too There is snow in Akureyri and just a terrible situation for the vegetation and the birds and the newborn lambs …”At the gym; The Shrink (a la Ivanka stories) who has the locker next to mine, “Are you leaving the city over the weekend?” He asked. I told him I was going to the beach. He replied, “Well I have to clean seven air conditioners.” So I asked, “Business, or your own?” He replied, “They are all mine.” So I told him, “Well I don’t feel sorry for you as you must have quite a large apartment and must be a rich man.” So he replied, “How would you like to feel like a rich man for the day…” ha ha not going there..
Two minutes later I was at the supermarket buying buckets of food, and bags of junk, when I got to the cahier the lady tried to charge me double for the cheese, so I told her that she’d got the price wrong, She disagreed, so I said I’d leave the cheese, meanwhile she has asked another cashier who ran over and found me to be correct, “Lucky you, now I will scan it.” she said -- lucky indeed I was trying to leave and now she was holding me up, and I had to get out my wallet again.. All whilst holding my five bags of shopping.. So I am half way down the road and I think, “I wonder if there are any other inaccuracies (as I never usually check the receipt).” So I stopped, checked the receipt and low and behold she had charged me $12:99 for a blinkin cauliflower!
So I traipsed like a slug through a honey comb back to the store. “Ah lucky you!” She exclaimed, “Now I give you money.” Yes, lucky me.
From Falmouth,
“Did you see we were named one of "25 essential things to do in the summer" in Sports Illustrated last July... the only road race.”The concept is to view the World Cup through experiences in NYC. So we have the German element forked out, but what about the rest of the world? Anyone know any ambassadors? Bars are the second option ….From Tattoed Terry, “I zigzagged through the city and discovered a Cote d'Ivorian restaurant on E. 119th St., just tucked off Park Ave. Should be good to see Didier Drogba play there. I forget who Cote d'Ivoire are playing in the first round.
I need to do some base running and stretch a lot to get rid of some pain in the adductors. Definitely taking it more slowly last year, need a rest from 15 marathons in nine years.
OK That's boring. Back to the beautiful game…..” I am not a football fan, except for once every four years…. Not really sure who I am supporting actually….. Now that the long haired guy has retired from the Argentinian squad has retired, and Zico has long gone… even Romareo….Even Platini…. Nakuru KAA track meet (track is not really a word for what they ran on -- I know this town well as Joyce Cheppy lives there whom I used to travel around a bit with in the mid Nineties on the running scene -- she has quietly retired from the running world but must be close to having the most Sub 2:30 marathons in the world.. What did her in (in my humble opinion) was she, a couple of years ago, ran a marathon then instead of recovering jumped into another, got a series of injuries that she had up to the last time I talked to her, In January of this year.. Anyway Nakuru is more famous for its Flamingos, and bus station. 1,500m
1. Edwin Kibet 3:47.5
2. Nicholas Kemboi 3:48.1 (He who has ran 26:30 on a Euro track for the 10,000m)
3. Elijah Boit 3:49.7 5,000m
1. Leonard Komol 13:46.6
2. Alex Macharia 13:49.8
3. Abraham Keter 13:50.6... 10,000m
1. Edward Muge 29:23.5
2. Joseph Kiptanui 29:50.1
3. Edwin Bii 30:07.5... And the women -- 1,500m
1. Tabitha Chelagat 4:36.0
2. Caroline Chepkorir 4:37.2
3. Esther Wangui 4:40.2... 5,000m
1. Emily Chebet 17:22.0
2. Moras Cherono 17:32.0
3. Rebecca Chesire 17:44.0... 10,000m
1. Jane Ekimat 34:27.4
2. Caroline Cheptanui 34:30.7
3. Hellen Cherono 34:34.4Listening to Brit Pop, bands like Suede, Ocean Colour Scene, and Muse -- they sound like bands from the 1960’s -- I am sure the rest of the world already knows this, but I am a bit behind the musical scene these days.El Guerrouj wants to ‘fun run’ the New York City Marathon…. Good for him, though he might find out marathon running is not so much fun, no matter what the speed!On Sunday I went to visit Radu who is a bit of a sport legend in the city of new York. I was supposed to go and see him a couple of years ago. He has a studio in midtown and is known for training the likes of Cindy Crawford & Bianca Jagger.. Hanging out there was Doctor Dan with his green shades.. We had lunch over the road at ‘Michael’s’ (By the side of the Hilton) and just across the road they were filming Spiderman with cables coming from one building to another -- your typical Sunday in New York.
I was damn thirsty as I had ran in the morning in CP so I was drinking coffee by the gallon, which was much better than the last time I drunk coffee from here (with the Rocket) -- On the plate was an Omelet with Artichokes and Spinach, some fruit (rather a small portion) and whole wheat toast. Not bad, but not fantastic either. The night before I had Pizza from Pintailles btwn Madison & 5th Ave on 91st -- now there is a story behind this place as the owner used to a bit of a partier, anyway the food there is good - a very thin crust with tasty vegetables, and a mozarella cheese -- not greasy at all!, washed down with red wine and sam adams (yep an odd blend, but..)
On Sunday I had bagels and Coffee with the SC’s -- first time in many years! The coffee machine they have is over $1k and does everything bar clean the teeth after it has done the deed -- Stace is the reason why the Mountain Climber is running the NYC Marathon this year, she is also Lance Armstrong’s publicist, “I have two athlets in the Marathon!!”” Good for her -- she also PR’d at Broad St and won a 5k the week after in PA!
Good luck to StuGlu (Another legend of the scene) who is running Grandmas in three weeks! I must have been well behaved because they invited me back next week! Also I went over seas to Brooklyn to see Scyld who is helping Shoe4Africa get something on film! Small world Scyld’s father is the largest force in promoting African music in England with his PR company and record label right now, and actually plays a mean bass himself… Too bad I have only given Scyld six days to get it done! We knew each other as 12-year olds and met again on the 6th St track a couple of years ago..
Before that I was in the park and chatted with Cynthia & Glenn Gales who were out on bikes, they have a factory near the earthquake that just came about in Indonesia this weekend -- Glenn had to ride the family humper bike as a handicap because otherwise he goes to fast, Cynth is training for the Danskin Tri -- she is selling her jewelry line at over 8-major museums across America -- The Met, Getty in LA to mention two! Desmond Tutu & Oprah wear her stuff! Derek Wittenberg was in the park waiting to run with Ann from the NYRR, Ingmarie on her last run, “I have chocolate for you..” Shoe4Africa Director Joy D. ran by and is back in training after her injury. Evelyn ran by with her red hair (was blonde last week), Nina was sitting on a rock.. Denise n Michael with a client, Arrie - the taxi driver who followed a fare onto a boat out at sea off Staten Island was doing a 12-miler, John from the blue club, As I cycled out of the park I saw Rick Pres from the Flyers & Letishia…. And more…
05/29 Memorial Day Holiday here in the USA, thus the newz returns on Tuesday. 05/26
Mutola looking for 14th straight in women’s 800m at the PRE meet this weekend -- what a legend! The other big meet this weekend with more of a long distance thread is the Hengelo meet in Holland.
My friend Frida Run asks ya to check out Iceland (and yes it is Run by name and nature, as she was V fast in the 1500m, and is still v fast) --www.natureexplorer.is and consider choosing it as a holiday choice! They can tailor a holiday for you, take in the marathon should you choose to run in the Northern Most Capital City Marathon.From Holland,
“Just bought a new espresso machine and got Kenyan espresso coffee with it, incredible taste! Take care from rainy and cold Holland.” Has to be starbucks. “Lornah Kiplagat won today the Dutch Championships 10,000 meter in 32.20.37. Lornah needed a time of 33.20 to qualify for the European Championships in Goteborg in August. Lornah paced for Dutch Anita Looper who wanted to run 32.50. After 7 K the pace went down and Lornah decided to push it a bit. She ran a negative split and needed 16.00 for the 2nd half.”
So yesterday I started my Prisons rehab Training Program!
The guy on the far left, in white (Curtis), ate his breakfast before training, “I’m fit, I can take it.” By the end of the session he was writhing on the track groaning like a crocodile in a cheese shredder.
Off they went, we had 16-not bad for a first day! Trevor, on his first track session ran the 100 like Ben Johnson! I am now pestering Mizuno to get this team sponsored -- look out for us at the local races!
Have to go shopping for food -- it is no longer the need to make the food list, now I just have to buy everything because (apart from raisins) the cupboards are bare! An all time low, well except I am well stocked in red wine.So I bumped into Tattooed Terry in the park, he’s getting me invited to the German Embassy for the World Soccer Cup first game, featuring (of course) the hosts Germany! How cool is that. “Sure I can take a date,and you don‘t mind dressing up as a woman do you?” What the flip I have never been to the Deustch Embassy.. Was is das mein Herr? I‘ll have a ball.
Bumped into Mike Trunkes too, he invited me up to his Guest House in New Paltz -- it is a runner‘s paradise out there… Alem too was in the park talking about the running scene and the Ethiopians coming to NYC on June 03rd -- Defar and Gebre to name a couple -- with the message “Support Ethiopia at this Meet!”
We saw the Russian Rocket jogging along, wants to go to dinner next week -- I remember what happened last time(!) Horizontal walking to say the least, for him --
Vanessa new to the Marathon Training Program, “I don‘t know about this marathon business, because I like to party a lot..” Chubbs, “Then this is the group for you!” Lynn, from Sydney has also joined the group, “Been here 12-years, but I miss the horses…” Is that a standard Australian reply because OzPaul was saying he misses something with four legs too…
Pierre ran by “Hey you guys are slow today.” Maybe he did not notice I was not in my running clothes -- he massaged Ingemarie earlier, and she told me his car broke down -- okay put those together, but somehow she was involved… Long runs on Sunday from the store at 9... Chubbs and I are going early because he needs to get out to some beach.
Crazy road day today -- two passive Chinese men (on different avenues) cycle across the avenues against the red light causing cars to fling and ding.. Just when I was awaiting the third a homeless guy pushes his bed across the street on wheels causing havoc a la in the mode -- I mean this guy was looking for a hospital ride and had the linen for the drive. Couple that with every blinking taxi being super desperate to pick up anything moving on the street… Meanwhile Downtown (bad) news from Mary S. (but thanks for sending), “East 6th Street track closing for construction July 5-end of November..” Are they kidding? I mean, lets’ take a flag at local logic here.. How about starting the Monday after the NYC Marathon when running kind‘ve dies down in NYC?05/25 On Runner’s World today until noon
Caroline Bierbaum. Here she is:
For those living in Midtown Rick tells us, “The good bagel guy must be back at Hot & Crusty, because the cinnamon raisin bagels this morning are great.”I have an idea for DHL, UPS et al: Why not instead of providing a tracking number that invariably says “In Transit” anyway from the Baltic Sea to Brooklyn Bay have a system that alerts you, by email or cell phone, when the UPS truck is within a certain radius of the house? You could have GPS on the truck so you see, ’ah he is a mile away, ah he is on the street’ -- I mean how much money would it save them? Loads because I for one nearly always get the parcels on the second delivery attempt..
Over in Holland Lornah and Hilda were both talking at clinics yesterday and Lornah will be runagate Dutch Champs only to get a 10,000m qualifier for the Europeans later this summer in Sweden’s Goteborg. She has to run a 33' 20" I think...
Heather continues, “In other news... I got a road bike (Jamis Ventura Elite) and I love it! (I figured cycling would be a way to make my accidents more high speed and dangerous. wink) Only... I cannot get off the damned thing. I have road burns on my elbows to prove it... I fall in lieu of dismounting. “Thanks to Jonathan Beverly of Running Times who is kindly taking something over to Africa for us!Down on the track -- It was a beautiful night Tom pushing his limits, Eileen running great, Scott cruising along, Luiz on fire and stepping up, Michael from Kellogg had a great night, Trackman Dave still with a sore hamstring affecting his speed, Rick with the troublesome bike, Kurt Le Vert back from Japan and the extra pounds “Hey I was paid to eat over there… Well I am a nice guy. A fat one but a nice one.” We believe you…, Ingemarie -- “This is fun!” Indeed saying that after 45-minutes of speed work proves Swedes are mad.
Cristine counting the minutes, Cruiser Christine digging in deep, Peter2 looking great and working the workout to its best, Shawn who is having one of her socials this Saturday should you wish to join her over the bridges, Kathy Masterblaster was finding the going boring and didn‘t like the horn, but smiled her way through, and Kathy G pondering the marathon game, Robin2 sneaking in a walk on the rest when she thought I was not looking but had good form for the rest, Robin1 - Congrats on placing second in her age group on Saturday “Never before I started doing your speedwork” Yep it works, & Robin3 pushing the bullet, Michelle looking silky smooth, Nancy hanging good for the first forty minutes, Arthur - not the same speed as he had last week, and Paul K who always gives 100%.
Ostrava, Czech Republic @ the Golden Spike on Tuesday, 30 May
- Kim Collins, the 2003 World champion at 100 meters, & Olympic steeplechase champion Ezekiel Kemboi of Kenya.
05/24 Multi Olympic gold medallist Michael Johnson reveals he has been approached about taking up a role with UK Athletics. Again.. this has been going on for a while. Johnson has a big interest in Britain from a commentary interest... more concrete....
Double Olympic champion Daley Thompson has revealed he will take an active role in guiding and inspiring the next generation of British athletes.
You know what I hate -- form filling, especially on the internet, enter your zip code, okay, enter your state, well can’t you work that out automatically?? I mean they put a man on the moon before they put wheels on suitcases.One wonders how much money goes into developing one of these things…TGV sent a link about the new nike shoe that links to your ipod -- it seems so odd that someone takes something so pure and makes it so complicated! I mean is it necessary, and what do you do with all this data? Upload it. Side load it. Shoe load it.Peter Njenga talks, “IT IS NO LONGER A SECRET: More Kenyan athletes are active in the lucrative road races around the world than in track races, and with good reason.” And we like Peter because he came to the S4A press conference in Nairobi, nice guy. Click for the articleThe T shirts are designed and being printed in Tanzania! Also there is a school there who is looking for a hook up with an American instituition, please read on and see if you can help: “One of the requirement in the process is to indicate the Source of Consultancy for our School. These are the Colleges or universities where we can consult them for the technical as well as academic matters should the needs arise! Do you have any idea of the School -universities in America which I can indicate them as the Source of Consultancy of the Tanzania Sports academy.” Email me if you have any ideas - thanks.“Hey Toby, Did you notice that Lance Armstrong's former Tour de France rival, Laurent "Jaja" Jalabert, did the London Marathon this year in 2:57? He said he is planning to do the Chicago Marathon this fall. Jaja went out much too fast at London and paid for it in the second half. After also doing the NYC Marathon in 2:55 last fall, I think he has learned enough now to perhaps even go below 2:50 in Chicago. It should be interesting this fall. Wouldn't it be cool if Lance and Jaja would go head to head in the Paris Marathon in April 2007? Cheers, Stuart A” Jala also ran NYC! We could get the head to head in November! PR guys where are you?? The very last slide shows Jaja the day before NYC last November.Out coaching the Flyers last night - Every one was pushing hard and I am seeing big changes for the better as people are really stepping up to the plate, the whole flippin group. Joe is going to make me a loaf of bread (after I rudely suggested he start adding raisins to his recipes), Ed blew up in his marathon proving that 90% of us run too fast in the early miles, Dan missed the start of the workout after chasing a dog that had escaped on a leash, Eileen #2 had a three minute PR this weekend, Maria has turned into a tornado, Dan is off to New Orleans today to help rebuild houses, Erin was collecting shoes for Shoe4Africa -- what a nice group huh?
Eileen told me that her boyfriend is opening a bar in Hoboken, he‘s Irish but does not want to make it an Irish bar (women stay away from these places) so he is calling it Carpe Diem. Well to be honest if I was opening a bar I would call it “open“ Flippin Fab name if you ask me!! Anyway- a great night in the park, and zipping by us was Jonnie who I have not seen in an age (“You look Scrawny“), Heather McG (“I‘m running again, at least!”), Alem smiling in his red pants…… Talking Reds & Yellows The DHL man called earlier. SO I am signing the box and he says, “I came yesterday.” I said, I know. “You weren’t home.” Yes, but I made an effort to be home today -- I mean what does he expect, that we change our lives around a parcel delivery that we don’t know is goin gto comer.. And on that note I was talking to my 83-yr old friend at the gym today, “Whad’ya eat?” Why, he asks, So I mutter, “Just wondering what I have to do to reach 83...” I’ve got everyone (well the locker room crew) all doing shoulder twirls these days -- They are all stiff in the upper backs (as you do after 8-decaddes of living) so we do the hoops whilst talking and swigging the jamba juice.
05/23
Did you watch the women’s Olympic Marathon -- remember this lady leading the pack?
I met John Samsel of WTC in the park who sent me this photo of me at work(!) A rarity if you believe some people.. Actually it was not planned, the working bit.
I was in the park meeting Ingemarie of Sweden who I did mention won the Stockholm hilly marathon on a very hot day at 2-pm in the afternoon in 2:33.. She is in NYC for the week and I am showing her a couple of things -- I took her round the park’s best paths, saw Anthony Edwards running out there…
We went to the NYRR, and to the store, and I phoned up Pierre, “She needs a massage. What? How much?? She’s a foreigner! Pierre, she’s my friend… from the early nineties! Okay, better. Okay, half that and take something out. Hm that sounds negotiable…” For fixing her up with some massages when she is here..
And I was showing her the Upper East Side before she was popping off to her fave store -- Whole Foods. And then talked with Chubbs -- might even go running with him over the upcoming days… He also gave me a letter from Marc Gouran, and if Marc you are reading this please shoot me an email in response that…. Ingemarie also wants a green card as her brother is working here, and she is also interested in doing so -- who wouldn‘t.
Flying round the park, setting PR‘s in training runs, 10-milers too, was Kyomi who is on fire this year! I wish I could do ten mile PR‘s in 68‘s! Well done.
Hicham El Guerrouj announced, in tears, his retirement yesterday as reported on the BBC -- Well that is old news, we announced this OVER one month ago on the site.Adidas 2-mile was…
1 Markos Geneti Ethiopia 8:19.61
2 Alistair Cragg IRE 8:23.75
3 Ian Dobson USA 8:25.86Erin from the Flyers went camping with her boyfriend,
“Back from camping in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully
the bears were nowhere to be seen and the rain stayed
away for at least part of the time.” Funny enough I saw a Bear this weekend, in fact two, out at New Paltz -- lying out in the rain, a big black bear that must have weighed nigh on a 1,000 lbs called Objie… he was phased out and in his slumber mode out on Zone nine.
I was at the supermarket, and they had a special on raisins, so I stockpiled -- I now have ten boxes stashed away -- as my primary intake of food this is no bad thing. Mind you the tests I did at the gym revealed ‘allt ar gott’ when it comes to the health -- my bone density was fab, % of muscle and fat kool, thus it just goes to show you can eat badly and be heathly.. I was talking the other day to Kimka Griffin and she was saying how she kept her diet good “Apart from the scotch and the wine” and how she keeps each meal inside the four food groups, and I was thinking I never go outside one food group - The mighty Carb! Yesterday the diet was all caffeine -- I met Caroline Bierbaum in Starbucks (coffee rating 8/10), then I was in Sarabeth‘s (coffee rating 3/10) looking at the cookies but could not see one that actually looked appetizing. Yura (the other side of the street 3/10)…
Reuben Chebii 29:47 and Russia’s Ilona Barvanova 34:01 were the Shelter Island winners - tough course. Full results hereOlympic silver medallist Hezekiel Sepeng has been banned for two years by Athletics South Africa for doping. Begging the Q -- as he on the smarties when at the Olympics then?Hengelo Editions; Sileshi Sihine will run the men's 10,000 metres, and Meseret Defar the women's 5000 metres. Gebrselassie out of the line up -- not recovered from London as yet.05/22 Shoe4Africa sends a huge thanks to Jacqueline H. for her donation that has gone a long way to supporting our Moroccan race.
Over one thousand women(!) are now signed up for the Tanzanian Shoe4Africa race!!On Friday night I went out with Chubbs and Ivar (Mr. Leppin) to Luke’s on Third Avenue. Talking about bringing Leppin to NYC.. Watch this space. Chubbs, “No comments if I order Fish & Chips? And I‘m having a cocktail because I had a tough day…” Luke’s is worth forgetting except that I had the Tuna Steak encrusted in sesame seeds and it tasted fab! I actually had fish (Salmon) for lunch too at the Blaggard on 38th (but better was the dessert -- Hazelnut Cheesecake) St when discovering more about the Central Park Conservancy & Achilles Track Club‘s program for Diabetics coming to NYC at a meeting with Dick Traum.. Heard that Chris Stewart is in Malaysia right now…. In between I went to the ICP on 43rd & the Ave of the Americas to see a photo exhibit taken by African photographers that I can recommend for some unique shots. I actually like cooking myself and I discovered a great dish the other day - cooking rice I added a mango, cinnamon, a teaspoon of peanut butter, carrots, ginger, then a sautéed onion and garlic, lastly tofu & Portobello sliced mushrooms soaked in red wine, Dijon mustard and cloves (that I had bought to stick in an orange) -- it was flipping brill.
The next morning --The Healthy Kidney -- what a race. I was on the bike at the front and it was very impressive to see how one move at the two mile mark really made it.. Linus was the only one who looked like covering the move with a strong chase that killed him off in the later stages but at least he died trying…..Mo F of Britannia came through like a train as he was nowhere in sight on Cat Hill. I had a great race view as I was cycling alongside Craig Mottram the whole way.
Alemtsehay was taking it “easy” as she had two more races scheduled for this weekend! She throttled back after ensuring a winning gap, but the good news was that her bad knee was not bothering her…. Good to see both Mike Frankfurt & George Hirsch from the NYRR Board out racing hard.. A shock as seeing Walter DuPont again! A face from the past. Working the event I did not get the chance to chat with some of the people I would have liked to, Like Andrew Letherby who was for once not the first Oz-man to cross the line.
Following which I had breakfast at the Tavern with Ivar and his wife.. That place has good coffee, I thought the photographer coming to the table was rather tacky though. The first time I ate at the Tavern it was with the CEO of PHS Healthcare (or I think she was) when they were sponsoring the NYC Marathon Elite Comeback award. She was a very nice lady, she never told me she had cancer. I remember when she came up to me after the marathon she was crying as she said being involved in the event moved her so much. She died very shortly afterwards, and at the finish I had given her my finishers medal -- she was buried with the medal.. Anyway
Before popping over to the East Side I bumped into Sylvia a long time volunteer from the Achilles who lives on the Upper West Side and travels out to JFK each day for her job with the UAE.. Sylvia comes from South Africa and is always a great motivator for the club, and I bumped into Nell Hanks (A former Ford model) who runs the Odyssey House Program whom I am trying to link up to get them doing some hard track training and get them training with the Prison’s Rehab program I am starting on Thursday; I am thinking the two groups will be perfect for each other. Good that Nell thinks so too. I had to stop at Urban to chat with Chubbs about some biz so caught up with the gossip -- Danny the Dollarman finally started a race at a good pace; last week he went out with me at the 5k, so this time he set off at 5:11 -- much better. Herb-the-Verb blaming his training shoes for his slow clocking, Anil happy just to clock the miles…
Mizuki Noguchi, the reigning Olympic champion in the Marathon, will return to defend her real,- Berlin Marathon title on 24 September.
Despite running with a slight cold…Lornah The Simba won today (for the 7th time in a row) the Resolution Asset Management Womens 10 K in Glasgow, Scotland. Sunny weather, 11 degrees C and no wind, ideal conditions. Lornah ran 32.16 on a very hilly course. 2nd was Vivian Cheruyiot from Kenya in 3225 3rd Ogla Kimaiyo in 32.25 4th Monicah Jepkoech in 32.33, 5th HATC member Sharon Tavengwa from Zimbabwe in 33.07 and 6th Sally Barsosio in 33.32.
Next for Lornah: Dutch Championships 10,000 m in Vught on May 25 -- this is so she can qualify fot he Euro 10,000m.THE
Manchester 10KRd 1 Zersenay Tadesse (ERI) 27:36 [ERI Best], 2 Fabiano Joseph (TAN) 27:41 [TAN Best], 3 Boniface Kiprop (UGA) 27:58 [UGA Best], 4 Yonas Kifle (ERI) 28:31, 5 Driss El Himer (FRA) 28:31, 6 Chris Davies 28:38, 7 Alberto Chaíça (POR) 28:43, 8 Vyacheslav Shabunin (RUS-M35) 28:45, 9 Khalid Zoubaa (FRA) 28:49, 10 José Manuel Martínez (ESP) 28:57
“Love the spotlight? Here's your chance to shine in an NYRR television commercial. We're seeking six to eight NYRR members to serve as extras in the commercial, scheduled to be filmed at the Reservoir in Central Park on Tuesday, May 23, from 8:00 a.m. to approximately 6:00 p.m. Interested? Please call Stephanie Fernandez at 212.545.8500 or 646.247.6686 or e-mail at Stephenie@earthlink.net by Monday, May 22, before 3:00 p.m. Members of all ethnicities are needed. Extras will be in the background running at the northernmost part of the Reservoir, and will receive a complimentary lunch and a hearty thank you!
5/19 A press release in English. It is a big thrill for me to get this man to be the Guest of Honor at our Tanzanian Shoe4Africa race because I remember reading and hearing about his efforts as he raced against the great Miruts Yifter at the Olympics when he won the Silver. So funny that all these years later.. Who would have thunk it. How life turns out.Today Apple’s flagship store opens on Fifth Avenue.Budweiser apparently has a large slice of the East African market, especially in Tanzania we hear… less in Kenya. Tusker is big in Kenya, great beer.So last night I went out for dinner. We met at an apartment before going and the guy who owns the apartment races vintage motorcars, owns some restaurants and race horses -- They have a slue of Picasso sketches all around the lobby -- I felt like I was in an art gallery!
He has amongst other cars a 1966 Porsche 906 that was a hill climbing champion vehicle and (up my street) he owns two motorcycles -- A Ducati (same model though somewhat newer than one I owned) and a dream marque - a Vincent. In fact a friend of his had just bought five Vincent‘s from Norway…
We went to; Buzina Pop (1022A Lexington Ave. at 73rd Street, 212-879-6190) opened on Friday. Its executive chef, Adriano Suppa Ricco, hails from the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, where churrascarias got their start. At the new Upper East Side eatery he is using Brazilian ingredients in dishes of his own invention. -- I had the Arugula salad to start, followed by the mixed nut, brie cheese and green pea risotto, with the Chocolate fudge dessert -- very good food indeed! The service was somewhat slow, though we did get the table very quickly in a packed place (maybe due to my dining partners), the music (Brasilian, sorry I can’t spell it the American way) was great, and the wine by the glass Pinot Noir was okay not spectacular. The crowd there was missable and noisy, but leaving 5the place made me long to be wandering out onto a beach, not Lexington.
Over in Blighty, “Sunday Manchester 10k coming up. Last year Haile won it setting an all-comers record. Fabiano Joseph takes on Zersenay Tadesse and Boniface Kiprop. Jelena Prokopcuka takes on Gete Wami, Deratu Tulu and Benita Johnson. Lornah/Hilda not doing it this year.” From Urban -- yep Lornah & Hilda are going to Scotland instead.On the newsstands today -- the 1,000th issue of Rolling Stone.Are football and economics linked? An essay by Goldman Sachs -- you can say so! Imagine if Togo wins the World Cup…… The country would get a facelift. A fact there has only been one world cup final (1978) since the 1930’s that has not featured either Germany or Brazil. On a Brazilian note Minnesota is moving back from NJ, she has had enough of living in the sticks.Alberto Juantorena, who is visiting in Cordoba has invited Bernie to the Cuban Marathon in November.. I am trying to get that invite extended to two…I got around to watching the London Marathon yesterday -- wow, what a race, the women’s chase pack was like a machine.. And what about the Khannouch? He got dropped, clawed his way back to the front of a pack with the who is who, and then takes the lead and pushes on.. But Limo - what a runner.Wow, a name from the past --1 Bec Wassner 31 NY 16:27 2 Diane Kenna 41 MLNY NY 18:43 & Jorge Real 35 NY 15:07 winning the wall st race.Small world in the mailbag, I get an email from a woman in Alaska who wants to donate used running shoes, She is going to Arusha, Tanzania, “There is a women's run on June 16 in that area. I read about it in the Arusha Times online which gave me the idea about donating running shoes. I found your website. Do you have a contact for this race?” That’s our race!
MR TERGAT!!
05/18
Mr Nick “Goose“ of Top Gun, or Dr. Mark Greene… or Anthony Edwards…
So yesterday with Anthony Edwards was an amazing experience -- we had so many links it was incredible. Fantastic that he is coming to the Shoe4Africa party, and better yet he is coming to Kenya and will probably be there for our race in December!
Shaolin training robe. Buy an orange suit -- $100. Amazing what you get coming through the email…. Don’t think I need one of these yet!The IAAF has just been informed by Tissot Timing of an error in the reading of the result recorded by Justin Gatlin (USA) in the 100m -- his time has been rounded up to equaling the WR of 9.77 -- poor guy.Big thanks to Erin of the NY Flyers who will be helping that club get a Shoe4Africa action plan started! Details on their web site coming soon!And in the mailbag from Felicia (a nutritionist) -- “This email has been sent to inform you that I finally got it together & have a Web site that is now live on the Web. I invite you to take a look it, and appreciate your ongoing support:
http://www.feliciastoler.com/ It is still a work in progress….”This weekend the big race intown is the Kidney 10k -- a points race for men and women.Down on the track -- Queen of the Harriers did not make it as she (and a few others) were racing, she did invite me to a prty at her house though -- but we don’t take bribes -- either you did the w/out, or you did not. And I managed to keep the aerobic effort going tonight for 55-minutes, till I was worried that Sir Alec would kill me if I added anything more. Some sterling running among the usual flying Frisbee/soccer balls etc etc…. even the other runners down on the track had no etiquette!
CenturyMan ran well, as did the Commander despite a wobbley toe. Jamie outdid herself hanging on to Arthur who seemed to have discovered something called Overdrive! R2 finally made it down in her Fluoro Green shorts, and Grapefruit Nancy made it sans Robin #1, Peter2 was really going well until a hamstring twinge after a good 30-minutes of stretching, Emma was down too with him. Chuckychina was not getting competitive and hiding under a baseball cap.
Eileen of the Flyers was giving it all, as was Michelle who was testing out her new shoes -- looked fast from where I was standing. HotRod came and blew a few laps at 100mph as she knows how -- she was the only one who heard the workout and said, “Kool!” Everyone else spat at me! Luiz lifted up to heights that he should be running each week. Cruiser again got faster and faster the longer we stayed out there. MasterBlaster killed lane two, and Christine was rocking for the East Village in Red. A good night.
05/17 The Olympic Silver medalist, (Tanzania’s best ever placing) Suleiman Nyambui will be the official starter for the Shoe4Africa Women’s Only 5k in Kindoa next month!
On the IAAF site about Sandell winning the XC in Finland, and she is a really nice person so I hope all goes well.. Reading on…“Utriainen had his hamstrings operated on in April 2005 and is focusing on the European 10,000m in Gothenburg this summer, and will try for the standard (28:50) in Reykjavik, Iceland on 25 May.” Good luck to Jussi who is featured in the sold out book Train Hard Win Easy -- Reykjavik is no easy place to run fast -- the wind in that city is like nowhere else I have ever been in this world…. But the track is a good one at least.Last night I went to see Richard Gere and Matthieu Ricard (Buddhist monk who left France to study Buddhism in the Himalayas 35 years ago… co-authored the best seller The Monk and the Philosopher.) give a talk on Buddhism, happiness, and wellness at the Y. The two made quite a contrast -- Gere, sharp cornered and somewhat cynical (“Are the leaders today people we want to emulate?”) Whereas Ricard came across as someone genuinely warm hearted, if not a touch repetitive on a sold audience.. “A change of the mind is possible, yes, You can change the state of the mind…” Looking around at this Upper East Side pill popping anti-depressant crowd that was a proven given….
Then some of his analogies toward happiness were bizarre, “if a boat hits you you are angry, but then you notice it is an empty boat, so instead you laugh… you are happy” One wonders if this man has ever been in such a circumstance, and ( and I quote the man in question) at another level -- one could ponder, but then you could argue that he was just trying to raise our awareness’s by saying such a thing, which in turn in pretty damn true of anything said…
The meeting got better the longer it went on as for the first hour the subject matter kept on jumping about but landing on this same theme (Don’t worry if you feel gloomy because change is there),and then the theme that, and this was a new one, enlightenment of any truism (giving a concentration camp example) was almost a fear of facing, or admitting to be facing what the mind could admit to not wanting to face…
Gere was there more to come out with the clichés and the one-liners and the two did not really seem on par with each other, so one can guess this is not a Ginger & Astaire type team up…. The evening ended though I think with everyone being a touch more contemplative than when they walked in…
Funnily enough Ricard was talking about time in the day to do things, how at MIT he found people did not have time to concentrate on their mind yet they could run on the treadmill….
Earlier that night I had been on 91st St coaching the Flyers… (And I am sure this can be aligned with treadmills to the Monks).. And I made them do a session they were quite taken aback with (and remember this is not an Olympic development club) sprinting up and down a hill as hard as they could for twenty minutes, resting for five minutes and repeating the practice for another twenty minutes, then five minutes of aerobic exercises to follow.. The whole message at the end was “Well I never thought I could do this” and “Wow I did this” “Hey it was not so bad” “I learned after a while the legs just did it” -- Gere asked Ricard what was the greatest thing that his own Buddhist teacher had taught him, and he said, “To help people see what they can do and what they can become…” So my message back to Mr. Ricard is don’t knock the treadmills!
Abdelkader knappt en minut före Abdelhadid. Det var turordningen mellan bröderna El Mouaziz i Göteborgsvarvets tätstrid.-- And that is the scoop from this year’s Gothenberg Half Marathon -- that ‘Brother ‘Kader beat ‘Hadid to the line in Scandinavia’s largest Half -- he won in 62 not getting close to the legendary (refer to the Kenyan Saga stories part 503) Martin Ojuku’s nine-year old CR of 1:01:44. Helena Javornik won in 1:12:34, in front of Anna Rahm, 1:13:42. The first Swedish man was Lars Johansson 1:06:09.. I ran this race in 1995 when it was the Swedish Championships (got third behind ‘Biten’) and had to sprint the last 800m to beat Mustafa Nadour -- a teammate of mine who had a very colorful life… but the only reason I wanted to beat him was that I forgot to bring warm up clothes to this event and he was my hotel roommate.. Despite having extras he did not offer to loan me any.. So I remember having to warm up in my jeans… so a half mile to go he comes up on my shoulder and I think… “Bam”. That was the race with the mad dog in it too.. And I had an interesting talk with Bruce Tulloh (former Euro 5000m champion) on that day about tapering… ah like it was yesterday….05/16
On Wednesday morning I am having breakfast with Anthony Edwards. Quite a flipping impressive resume this man has! He was Nick Goose in Top Gun….
Also on that day DOWNTOWN UIRBAN --“we are having a shopping nite - This wednesday afternoon before and
after wall street run. (which starts and finishes a few steps from the
store). lots of great shoes and clothes at 50% off, and 15% off full priced
merchandise with a race number.…” That is from Cara and in conjunction with the the NYRR Wall ST Race.
Czech Marathon -- 1. Mbarak Hassan Shami (Richard Yatich), QAT 2:11:11Alina Ivanova, RUS 2:29:20
#2. Caroline Kwambai, KEN 2:31:08
The secret to a good diet -- as according to a 93-yr old phenomenal bullet hopper is eat an apple before dinner, 30-minutes before.130,000 applied to run the London Marathon this year! Loved this report on the Mombassa Marathon --“The marathon attracted only 12 foreigners, none of whom finished in the top 40” and on the men’s winner --
Kimei who traveled by bus from his high altitude home area of Kitale, some 600km upcountry, arriving a day before competition, showed a lot of experience in his running.
He could have easily dipped a sub 2:10 had the rain which delayed the start of competition by two hours made most sections of the course especially the Moi Avenue thoroughfare impassable.” And the most Kenyan part, “Many runners suffered injuries after falling into open man holes. (Peter Njenga)” Oh my goodness.
Men's marathon: Philip Kimei (individual) 2:11:06, 2. Michael Misoi (Individual) 2:11:08, 3. Joel Sitoti (GSU) 2:11:35secs,
Women's marathon: 1. Jane Wandahi (Kahawa) 2:39:53, 2. Monica Cherop (Individual) 2:44:45, 3. Mary Cheptoo (Nike) 2:59:08.
Meanwhile Olympic 1500m 2000 champ, Noah Ngeny’s comeback talk is…
"I want to do two road races in America this year before trying a full marathon next year,"
The 95th edition of Bay to Breakers, now sponsored by ING who sponsor the NYC Marathon,and on that note -- U.S. residents have until 11:59 p.m. EDT, June 1, to submit their applications for the ING New York City Marathon 2006.
Alemtsehay Misganaw was in action at the Newport 10km placing 4th in 34:04 ahead of Atalech’s (who used to have the women’s CR until this race) husband Fitsum Tesfa 34:56 -- Alemtsehay will be racing at Shelter Island this weekend.
Results --Julius Kiptoo, 28, Royersford, PA (KEN) 28:43
2. Joseph Matui, 23, Oro Valley, AZ (KEN) 28:44
3. Linus Maiyo, 23, Royersford, PA (KEN) 28:45
4. Ernest Mel Kimeli, 21, Queens, NY (KEN) 28:48
5. Alene Reta, 24, New York, NY (ETH) 28:49 of WSX… and Tatyana Hladyr, 31, West Chester, PA (UKR) 32:00 CR
2. Jemima Jelagat, 22, Oro Valley, AZ (KEN) 32:13
3. Eunice Chepkirui, 21, West Chester, PA (KEN) 33:38
4. Alemtsehay Misganaw, 25, New York, NY (ETH) 34:04 of WTC... #8. Julia Stamps, 27, New York, NY 36:22
05/15
One of England’s top athletes; a 62-minute half marathon clocking and a 2.15 marathon. Kassa Tadesse finished 14th in last year’s London Marathon.
Another Shoe4Africa News article in the Tanzanian Press!Anyway this week’s hero -- “My name is Jim McGrath & I run for Warren Street. I've enjoyed reading your
blog and other running articles. I would like to make a donation to the
Shoe4Africa program.” Thanks Jim -- You Rock!
Turkey’s Elvan Abeylegesse, 30:57, won the 5th edition of the Maltepe University 10km Road Run but failed in announced World record bid in what was her road race debut.
“I cannot always break a World record when I want to, I know that” said Abeylegsse after the race, “but whenever I feel capable, I must try.” -- Love the spirit, and she had a good shot as the others did not go so fast in the women’s or the men’s -- 2. Miryam Wangari (KEN) 32:47
3. Yuliya Gromova (RUS) 33:15 & 1. Kedir Burka (ETH) 29:16
2. Mustapha Bennacer (ALG) 29:19
3. Amanuel Woldeslase (ERI) 29:22
And in Veracruz--
1 Jones, Marion 11.06 -0.5
2 Edwards, Torri 11.30 -0.5
3 Jones, Laverne 11.48 -0.5... And in the men’s 5000- #7 VALLE, JULIO MEX 14:10, and few places back --NYAKERAKA, LAZARUS MEX 14:19.. Glad to see they are still hanging in there. Julio is a friend from way back when, as with Lazarus (who probably still has not learned how to swim)…
Kenyan Stephen Ndungu won the Belfast marathon in a time of 2:16.51
Joyce Kandia won the women's race in 2:43.11
A couple of email quotes from Mother’s Day racers -- “Then, to just top off the pukiness, as I am standing up just after the finish and recovering from heaving who do I see but my loser ex from California!! And he clearly finished in front of me!!! Yeesh.”
And, “I was ready to race as planned. But at mile 2, I experienced a ...... a digestion issue. Don't make me explain further.” They made me laugh….
So the Mother’s day Races in Central Park-- I set off for the park and timed it so I would have a nice run to the starting line as a warm up. (first hiccup) I decided to walk when I got out the door, at least for a couple of blocks…. Then up the big hill (can‘t blame me for that). Also the problem at this time in the morning is that the taxi’s are patrolling the avenues and when they see you then they step on the gas pedal and come rocketing toward you at the speed of a zappo rocket.. Just as you are thinking this is a good time to get across the avenue… Ah, fellow NY-ers will understand what I mean… if it isn’t the pigeons…
Getting to the park I was shocked to see BethG, on the double score of wearing a bib number, and then in a warren ST singlet! The heart of the Harriers as we knew it has gone blue! “As of the last four years” she said.. Anil said (Oops I forgot he asked me not to mention that so I won’t). Then I bumped into Fred who was wondering about the Shoes and the such, then a Flyer who is suffering from missing the Tuesday Night workouts because of work commitments, so I told him to quit work.
Over the loudspeakers came the comforting tones of The voice of the NYRR, Mr. Ian Brooks -- like Radio One it is listening to his banter as I was getting out my race number. I bumped into George Hirsch, “It’s my first race since the fall” and Mike Frankfurt, both of the NYRR Board, then I met the Russian Rocket, “I’ve been trying to call you for two days and your phone does not work” (This is highly possible, unfortunately the batteries have died on my phone so I can’t answer anymore with one phone and the other one is good for one phonecall then fades out for the next till it spends a few hours in the charger -- what to do)…
Anyway standing on the starting line waiting for the Gun to Pop I notice OzRod of Rodney of Cutler Salon -- So I am picking up some hair tips and I notice that Peter Heimg. Is standing right next to him (Peter is also a clipper, from Austria) so I ask if they know each other, to which the OzRod says, “Yeah, used to work for me but I had to get rid of him because he beat me in a race” that’s the spirit.
Talking to Kimka on the starting line before she set off on her strides that she did so blinking fast I am sure they killed her in the race… funnily enough after the race The Voice of NYRR was calling out for her for the awards and he said, “She’s probably at home cooking dinner for her husband" --Actually she was at the Met, but he said "44-years young," -- and it was a “wow, so long” moment -- I used to coach Kim when she was 39 -- she ran well then, 4:47 mile (seven days before her 40th birthday), and a 16:30 5k amongst other resuls, and the American Indoor Record for the mile.. But it seems like a year or two ago, not five ! Wow, how time indeed flies….
That was the same time Giorgio invited me for Pizza and I am still putting in the rain checks -- thought of that one because I saw him five minutes later.. Mary The Queen of the NYRR was out there - super glad to see her (for once) opting for the shorter distance (she was #2 in her age group!)… Moses was on the bridle path with his little cute nipper, and I did see Jonnie Allen for the first time in a long, long time -- used to have bbq’s on his deck, well actually I used to go and eat all his ice cream actually, but did the beer thing to fit in to the theme part…. Funny thing I came back and emailed him on one email account, and then checked the other email account and he’d emailed me with exactly the same issues/questions… a funky monkey.
Anyway BIG congrats to the fast ones Elmustafa Machinate (a very nice guy and good runner who will be racing the Kidney next week “I had no competition today”) 25 WSX NY 15:38 & Anne “Estupendo Rapido” Kugler 37 NY 17:19, and the team winners West Side Runners (who had all their scorers in the top six) and the women --1 New York Flyers.
Saw Cruiser & MasterBlaster went 2,1 in their age division -- well done, and Kyomi won her division too -- what a star, she only was told by her bossy coach to run the race less than twenty-four hours before the race (“Oh well at least he did not tell me to run the Half“)!
Starbucks -- 87th & Lex had a makeover, spent a lot of money and have taken out seats with the view of putting more comfy chairs in -- bad move as that place is always packed and the decorating looks like a downscale -- was in there with Zoomalong who will be racing the Healthy Kidney. I went to Starbucks at 80th & Second - just the same, I saw Kyomi there who has set 10-PR’s of late, and is now focused on the Mini. I also went to the Starbucks on 96th & Madison -- that was a bad coffee serving so I am thinking of boycotting that location.
So on Madison Avenue a school bus stops, zaps out the stop sign and the avenue comes to a halt, except another school bus comes zippinalong on the inside lane, past all the stopped traffic and the school bus -- go figure.
Chubbs, “I’m not going to do the race this weekend, I am going to see my Mother instead.”
Me, “Oh, I’m doing it. I need to start getting used to that racing mode again.”
Chubbs, “Well we can race it together then!”
Me, “What about your mother?”
Chubbs, “She can wait till Monday.”
Me, “Well Chubbs, I don’t know how fast I am going to be.”
Chubbs, “We don’t need to be at the front, we can be racing for the 40th place or something.”
Me, “There is no choice Chubbs.”
Chubbs, “yeah, can‘t win anything these days, too old.”
Half an hour later I bumped into John McManus,
Me, “I have not seen you for an age and a half.”
John, “Yeah it is the wife, she wants me to stay home more these days.”
Me, “You still racing, I have not seen you around for a while.”
John, “Well I‘m racing more out on the island, you know I can pickup good money out there. I don‘t know how they get the sponsors but winning $200 at my age ain‘t bad.”
ME, “By the way John how old are you now?” John “On July 22 I‘ll be 83.”
If you ask me it all sounds like a case of flapdoodle to me…. Walking along Third Ave I saw a friend of mine who is a trainer at the NYSC. When I was a member of the gym I used to notice how acrobatic he was jumping all over the railings and barriers. Then he used to talk to me when I was on the treadmill, and he told me he used to be a block-racer which is a unique NYC game where people race cars for one block.. The speeds he was going I told him he should go to the Armory! Anyway he is built like Carl Lewis and as he was walking to the gym I looked in his shopping bag and found nothing but health products… Not the pharmaceutical types, but Odwalla green drinks and things like that, fresh fruits…. As I said goodbye to him it was hello to a person I know from the same gym (yes we were yards from the entrance) who acts as an extra in many NY drama films, he was entering the gym with a Mac Donald’s soda and eating a donut…. It goes hand in hand….
Speaking of which there is a trainer at the gym that I now work out at who I will call Mr Cuba, as he comes from there -- he has this scar on his forehead, and I found out that he got it when first arriving to America. He came floating in (as you do) on a rubber car tire and when he was trying to embark he was beaten with a baseball bat by some authority at the sea coast!
So at the urging of Glen I went to the Moma last week to see an exhibition of a private collection of Broida something called Against the Grain -- to be honest I was not over enamored with his taste.. A lot of the works were from Guston the Canadian painter who appears to have gone through a “what am I” phase in his life -- nothing wrong with that… anyway I did wander up to the next floor and was please to find another exhibit with Picasso, Matisse, Leger, Miro, and an amazing Dali sketch. Glad I went up!Doha GP sets off with a bang -- WR 100m from the Brooklyn Man--
Gatlin Justin USA 9.76.. And Miss Mizuno-- in the 1500m 1 Defar Meseret ETH 4:06.11 20 2 Wanjiru Veronica Nyaruai KEN 4:08.21.. And a very fast Men’s 3000 --
Songok Isaac Kiprono KEN 7:28.97 20 2 Choge Augustine Kiprono KEN 7:29.73 16 3 Kipchoge Eliud KEN 7:30.47 14 4 Bekele Tariku ETH 7:37.07
Arsenal and Barcelona meet for the 50th European Cup final at the Stade de France on Wednesday. Then the focus goes to the World Cup… and Sweden are going to win, you read it here first! In a typical NY moment I was standing on Madison on Saturday afternoon heading to the NYRR and met Urs in the road, "the FA cup as amazing, absolutely the best.. Liverpool..." and as we talked another person wandered along the road, and in a British accent, the stranger just joined in anbd started discussing the Soccer match...Foot note -- Late press -- congrast to Denise who won an age group award despite runningthe first mile one minute faster than her goalrace pace, and having a blister the size of the state of Texas sit on her foot like a leech on a limb.
05/12
Mbarak Hussein. One of America‘s best marathon runners, and brother to one of Kenya‘s finest who was the first to win the NYC Marathon.. Ibrahim.
From Starbucks over in Kenya, “Things are going well, trained again 2-hr:38-mins with Moses Tanui in the Gym, he is really motivated and a gym fanatic. He was upset because I lost 2.4 kg and he only 1 kg. I bought him of course another soda to celebrate!”
Jogging in Central Park and I hear, “Hey Foreigners Out! Too many foreigners in this park!” From Pierre, then I jump on my bike and am heading down First Avenue and I hear Connor the Irish Iron horse (who has dropped out of the loop), “Get a helmet, wear a helmet!”.. I cross the street and Marty from the Y shouts out, “Hey, can’t you run any more, need a bike now?”Actor Matt Damon is back from a trip to Africa with a passion for fighting AIDS and praise for President Bush's relief program. Turkey’s Elvan Abeylegesse returns in action to challenge the road World record over the distance this Sunday (7 May). The current World record holder for 5000m on the track is set to participate in Maltepe University International 10km Run in Istanbul. Having raced a few times in Istanbul I hope for her sake they stop the traffic -- I remember suffering amongst the fumes and dodging cars that are not adept to seeing runners… Mind you not as bad as Portugal’s Lisbon. I think I could go a world guide to running in the cities. One of my fave cities was one that I thought would be bad when I first arrived, and that was Bogota in Colombia. I went to the local park and it was nothing, I tried to run in the city and it was bad.. Then I turned a corner and found an amazing place.. Stockholm is also an amazing running city -- you can be in the center of the city and jump on a rural trail that leads you for miles upon miles of fantastic running routes.Kenya is already hot in discussion about the possible problems for the 2007 World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa concerning corruption. The Committee Chief Executive, Isaac Kalua, says it will be smooth running.. And I met Isaac when I was in Kenya when I was sitting in the Eldoret Airport, he came up and introduced himself, so I immediately got him to come to the Upcoming Shoe4Africa race. A good guy, with a great business head.05/11
The Press is getting ready for the Tanzanian Shoe4Africa race on June 14th!
It must be the year of the marathon -- I got an email from one of my oldest friends (someone I have known since being a nipper) who has never ever had anything to do with sports but lots to do with the theater (read thru the lines) and he is now training for the marathon.. Then on top of that a friend who I went to school with (whom I 'shock' met again with on the 6th ST track), Scyld is now doing the big M. Scyld now lives in Brooklyn, zipped over from London (and maybe he lived in South America for a while) -- so I was checking out his web site
to see what he does.. I must say I watched two video clips from the website -- one on a car crash and the other on second hand smoke and liked them both.. Kool. I wonder what the rest of my school friends are doing. I had a good friend called Simon who was a market trader -- he started a shop (with the help of Tanser Financial Services) when we were seventeen called Fat City that sold second hand books and records… I was friends with this guy from the age of zip, then when I started traveling we would see eeach other only when I passed through town.. Then of the last years I have not heard anything until one day another friend (who is working in the legal world) emailed me to say that she had seen him in the docks awaiting trafficking charges… whatever next. Mike Kosgei who I happen to think of one of the great coaches of our era is going to Bahrain.. He was the Kenyan coach for a long time,and the talent he has is with the talent of the mind -- I wrote about him quite a bit for the first Train Hard Win Easy book….
Suneet sent me a picture of him rock climbing that made me want to go climbing again -- never thought I would want to do that again, as I used to go and nearly kill myself with my brotehr as a youngster and always thought “I’m on borrowed time!” but….
And in the mail bag from Rick’s friend Fred the red socked runner… the I‘m ready for the kill-but-I-am-really-not-that-competitive(!) Fred, “It was nice to see you at the four seasons on Easter. Thanks for the boston marathon writeup! For the record, I'm sure you know Rick should have kicked my ass and gets a free pass for being sick-- his 1/2 marathon split was about 15 minutes ahead of me I think. But like the tortoise and the hare... Anyway, I should have run five minutes faster or so but was having a fun time and wanted to stay looking fresh for the photos.
“I got Audrey (that's wife, not girlfriend by the way...) to accompany me on a 5 mile jog around the dirt paths in the Arnold Arboretum near our house yesterday. It was up and down hills in the pouring rain, 45 degrees, with a stiff wind, but she didn't whine or complain once. She did spinning classes at the gym all winter and has really boosted her endurance. I predict a 10K is next.” Good to hear it, and we expect Fred to come charging back in Chicago…. But the wise money is on Rick @ Philadelphia. Just as a reminder Rick crawled from his death bed to duel with Fred after the two brothers (in law) fought at Falmouth -- I believe it is 2-0 now to Rick…
So this morning I was chatting about Argentina, learning about the culture and the pastimes of the country. Peter F was telling me bit’s the other day, and yesterday an Argentine was letting me know about their recent visit last week, “the parks are not as clean as NY’s Central Park, nobody runs there very much…” and as importantly, “You can not get coffee to go as you do in NY, unless you go to a gasoline station, and then they have superb coffee… Even the food, pastries, are great there too -- not like what one would expect in an American gasoline station.” all this and more I was musing about whilst later drinking a pot of coffee at Café Mozart (great French Pressed coffee there)-- I don’t usually go to a restaurant way before noon but this was an exception… Also I forgot to mention another good place I was at -- in fact it is right opposite the SC’s house on the Upper West at 92nd ST -- Pizzabollo; can recommend the Johanna Pizza which is a wholewheat crust with cherry tomato & was it spinach(?) toppings with cheese… the wine with the dog on the label from Italy was good also, it said on the label something about fruit -- thus my diet must have been souped up on that day!
Anyway back to Argentina -- the national sport is of course soccer, but the government does hold free health classes in public places.. Sounds like something to be done in NYC…. Speaking of which I am yet to hear back from the Mayor on my proposed ‘smoke free central park’ idea. I thought to make it the world’s first mass-city smoke free park would be a great leading move.. I man you could just start with signs asking people to refrain…. Should have asked Bernie to bring it up when he had brunch with the Mayor last week…. Oh well.
“Jelena Prokopcuka, after winning the BUPA Great Edinburgh Run will make an early return to British soil in a fortnight's time. Prokopcuka, who easily defended her title, is now set to compete in the Scottish capital's sister event, the BUPA Great Manchester Run on May 21.”
Thanks to Erin who is volunteering to help with a NY Flyers shoe drive for Shoe4Africa.. Strangely enough the club president Dan had suggested that the Flyers do something a couple of days earlier so thanks to him too.. Erin adds, “Likewise, if you are ever in need of graphic design or other artwork…” Hm, she may have seen the art work on our antiquated web site! As you might have guessed the logo was ‘designed’ (cough cough) in a matter of photoshop minutes. Suggestions welcomed.Track Night -- and from Shawn before the night even started, “I'm sick for the second time in about a month. Frustrating--and somewhat unusual for me. Yuck!” but those who made it: Amy from CPTC (good to see her again joining us for a sess - ran some zippy laps, Atilla with his watch that sounds like a cellphone, Nancy -- doing top gear to get down on time, Evelyn who came late and finished lightningly fast, Rick moaning about his diet & consumption, and his body weight, Cristine J “what am I doing, what am I running?”
Eileen from the Flyers, Craig from Melbourne -- welcome, Masterblaster Kathy driving hard and adding repeats to the sched., Queen of the Harriers Diane set for next month‘s Easter Island race, Sir Alec suffering from his Half at the weekend, “Didna stretch after and at my age…”, Rebecca still in town and not in DC yet, Todd -- Kevin‘s friend, Robin from the Serpentines, Robin from the Harriers, Ben the teacher from New Paltz, Peter2 looking better and better each week, Chucky China - back to normal, Cruiser working well without the smoke, Centuryman losing the pounds, Michelle - getting virtually no rest on the repeats, Anil- good to see him back again, and Kevin “Suffering from Allergies” You should go and see Dr. Woo, “Well I am seeing Dr. Ho” -- also down on the track The Egyptian guys doing some loops at pace.
LOUCKS GAMES 5K ROAD RACE
Saturday, May 13, 2006
White Plains HS, White Plains, NY
Race Start: 8 A.M. More information about the 39th Annual Glenn D. Loucks Games:
http://www.loucksgames.org
05/10 Coming up this weekend the Mother’s Day Half & 5k. I am thinking of jumping into the 5k… I did not really want to, but on the thoughts of racing further down the month it may be wise to get out and run to give myself a rude awakening -- one way to scare myself into training a bit harder is to have the old reality check of a race and since it is a 5k in distance it seems defo doable… oh but the pain when the gun goes off.. Hm, not sure about this one… in the meantime I am encouraging everyone from the Urban Marathon Group to do it. On that note last week’s quote, “Chubbs, these walkie-talkies don’t work.” Me “Come in, can you hear me?” Chubbs. “Yes because you are two foot away Chubbs, but I can not hear you through this thing….” Me. “Urm I think you guys need to be both on the same channel, you’re on 14 and he’s on 16...” Adam. “They never taught me that at school.” Chubbs. Good luck on week two.
We hear from Michelle in Oz, “decided needed a change and the hairdresser basically cut all of my hair off.. I look like a pregnant boy!!.. “ And the good news is she may be coming to NYC in June!Number one: Bob Sweeney 7:16:12 at the Toronto Ultra Race 100k.. And this is a guy you’ll see flying round a 5K in Central Park the week after - amazing stuff.Sunday’s race -- Co-ed 5K: Start on Central Park’s East Drive at 70th Street and head north. Continue to a turnaround at East 88th Street. Return south and continue around the lower end of the park to the finish on West Drive by Tavern on the Green… the half starts later, at 9 AM and has $$ --First three women under 1:19 $100 and Winner who breaks the existing event record $100 1:18:25, (Janina Malska, 2002) as well as 400, 300, 200, 100 for the top four, and masters monies too.Tonique Darling & Alan Webb are the latest editions to the Reebok Grand Prix at Icahn Stadium on June 3.The world goes hi-tech… So Joe turns up to the Flyers workout with walkie-talkies too(!) I am an old hand now, besides he has already tuned in the things to channel seven. Are all the teams in NYC going wireless? However channel seven appears to be the taxi line as I kept on hearing, “pck me up, go to 79th, come in,” and stuff like that…. So we bumped up to channel 9.. So I had to develop a session that made use of the gadgets so we split up and decided to call out splits at strategic points, though at no particular distance making them (urm) rather random…
Eileen (assistant coach aka Jeter) said, “I’m coming down to the Urban sess tomorrow night… What is it?” Upon finding out she added, “I should have asked what is it first!” For the cool down I made everyone pick out somebody they’d never talked to in the club and asked that they ran a cool down with that person -- I wonder if it worked? It always amazes me to find out what all the runners do in the various clubs of NYC… y‘know you see someone week in week out; then you find out they are an axe murderer, or something. Oh, and Cotton Lloyd has upgraded to dri-fit clothes(!) Personally I like cotton to run in when I am living in a house with a washing machine, the good thing about the dri fit stuff is it dries quickly so you can throw it in the laundry basket -- try doing that with cotton… as Mr Lloyd probably knows.
From Forbes -- House of the Holy (Rich) --“Although the last three years have been phenomenal for the Manhattan real estate market, Edgar Bronfman Jr. didn't have much luck unloading his 64th Street Upper East Side townhouse when he listed it back in 2002--perhaps that's because he stuck a $40 million asking price on it. The five-story, 15,000-square-foot mansion is said to have an indoor atrium and a secret door that leads to the top two floors of the house. Neighbors include Edgar's brother Matthew, whose 67th street townhouse was listed for $27 million, although the price reportedly just dropped by $3 million.”
And more “Billionaire David Koch recently bought into what is one of the most exclusive buildings in New York: 740 Park Avenue, also known as 71 East 71st Street. Over the years the building has been home to fellow billionaires Ronald Lauder and the late John D. Rockefeller Jr. Koch and his wife reportedly put in a bid on an 18-room duplex (formerly owned by the Japanese consulate) in the building for $17 million, which, if accepted, would make the duplex considerably less expensive than the unit in the building that is on the market now for $24 million. Or the most recent unit sold there, which went for $25 million.”
05/09
Just for a change -- a non running picture. The Dakota where The Lennon Saga ended in 1980, many other famous people have also lived here… in fact Zoe Cassavetes used to live here too of the Puma TrainAway project…
Khouribga is the name of the town where the Shoe4Africa race is being held on the 03rd of June. Just in case you happen to be in the area…
Heard from Kurt Le Vert who has gone to Tokyo on business, finally -- I say that as the travel has been put on hold for so long. He writes for the disconcerting tourist to be, “Ran as soon as I got to the hotel - then out today around the Detached/Prince Regent Palace today then next I think Imperial Palace tomorrow morning…”
East Africa Military Games cross-country was won by John Korir (the younger) this weekend in Ngong.. Next year when the World’s come to Kenya the venue will be changed to accommodate the foreigners. The rationale was foreigners would die at Ngong, so let’s move it to Mombassa which is at sea level. Personally I would take the former as Ngong has cooler climes and an altitude that is not a killer, whereas Mombassa is like running in a swamp.30th Annual Lilac Blooms day -- He is back on his road running rampage: Gilbert Okari Kenya 34:14... Great result for #10. Matt Downin Westwood, NJ 35:52, #13. Samuel Ndereba Kenya 36:2822. Brother to Catherine, and back in #2 though he always starts his season this way --John Itati Kenya 37:29
The hot-on-the-roads Isabella Ochichi Kenya 38:38 with the first master #11. Sylvia Mosqueda Los Angeles, CA 41:37 and some up & down performances by
#15. Lyubov Denisova Russia 42:58
It’s official AOL says it ‘Nibbling between meals is a diet disaster’ -- in fact I was talking in the Steam room today about such issues to a man named Ed who has been a NYC runner for 30-years,and was talking about the invasion of the McDonald’s era 15-years ago to the area, his friendship with a manager of starbucks, and all ingredients relating to both - youch.Tesfaye Eticha, of Addis ETH 2:15:31 wins the Genevé City Marathon -- this man must have ran close to 100 marathons, no kidding.. Most of them in Switzerland too. He used to train in Albuquerque.. No idea where he lives/trains these days.. But earlier this year he won another marathon in La Suisse, so somewhere close perchance.. Italy?Kassahun Kabiso, ETH 2:18:29 wiinning in Vancouver with Malgorzata Sobanska, POL 2:37:06And from the Club of Clubs -- Stockholm Sparvagen, congrats to Henrik Skoog, Spårvägens FK, who took the Swedish XC Champs this weekend winning the short & the Long Course… they used to be held on the same day, but now they have them on Sat & Sunday… and odd as the world spins I was just not mentioning the women’s results as the “enemy” team Hasselby had done well (think Yankees Mets of Stockholm between the two clubs) when an email arrives -- Ingemarie from Sweden (and a Hasselby member) getting in touch after nine years!!
Ingemarie, who won Stockholm Marathon in 2:33, is coming to NYC at the end of this month to see her brother who lives here and will no doubt be a running whilst she is here. She used to be married to a good friend of mine Ake ‘Biten’ Eriksson -- who won Houston one year & ran 2:10 at Chicago… one of my fave training partners from the Sweden Years.
Speaking of Travels Cynthia from Geoartnyc.com is off to Barcelona for an inspiration gathering trip -- those are the type I like to take… but the closest I might get is to go to the Frick and see the Goya exhibit
05/08
The top six runners at the Icelandic race came from the Shoe4Africa team -- huge congrats, and thanks also to the enigmatic team manager Ivar of Leppin (my sponsor since 1993), And the winner of the Girls race!
1 21:46 Kári Steinn Karlsson 1986 Shoe4Africa
2 22:46 Stefán Guðmundsson 1986 Shoe4Africa
3 23:04 Þorbergur Ingi Jónsson 1982 Shoe4Africa
4 23:18 Sigurbjörn Árni Arngrímsson 1973 Shoe4Africa
5 24:00 Burkni Helgason 1978 Shoe4Africa
6 24:10 Halldór H Jónsson 1984 Shoe4Africa AND the winner of the 15-18 yrs women’s age group --
29:32 Herdís Helga Arnalds 1988 Shoe4Africa… In the pack we saw a couple of familiar names.. 1:50 800m runners both 28:30 Gunnar Páll Jamison (now 52-yrs young), and 28:49 Finnbogi Gleason (who used to be at school here in the USA).
EldoLise, “I biked to a meeting yesterday instead of driving- got yelled at for bringing my bike into the building- there was no place to lock it and it's theft central...the woman then asks me who I am and I reply "your client". my bike then got the best seat in the house...ha.”Apparently the famous Cave on St. Marks, the squat besat with artists, has now been closed up. That was the first squat I visited in NYC way back in the year of 1996 with Captain Sid who is now living in LA and working as a film producer of great wealth -- but in those days he was not so wealthy… anyway we went to visit a friend of his in the said building, and I remember thinking ‘How cool’ as well as the fact that we actually were invited in the place -- not like a squat I once visited in Amsterdam where the inhabitants threw pots and pans out of the window at us.I dropped by the store as Chubby wanted the Shoe4Africa headbands -- exclusive at the Madison Store(!) and was talking about back in the day when he was running the NYC Marathon in a headband with Joan Benoit along side him, can’t remember the catch line… but I am guessing Joan won.
Coming to the end of my grapefruit supply -- when I was in Puerto Rico I climbed up this fruit tree and was plucking grapefruits; they taste so good. Far better than the ones you pull off the shelf in the grocery store.
My wish list -- I was at Mary’s townhouse, in the Seventies on the East Side, and she was talking about some of the paintings she has on the walls and how they got there. This is one picture I think in the Louvre I would not have minded having on my own wall (plans,heist,hauls)… as long as it was original.A tale of three 5k’s -- Over in Osaka Lucy Wangui of Kenya won the women’s 5000m in 14:58.14 --she is the one who ran a super fast relay 10k in the Ekiden a year or two ago… And from a woman who recently gave birth and ran every day of her pregnancy --
Marla Runyan Nike 15:15.00 winning in Oregon, and over in Ethiopia a world & Olympic champion collects her first national title in a super fast (altitude of 2800m)
5000m 1. Meseret Defar (Ethiopian Banks) 15:42.06 #2. Meselech Melkamu (EEPCO) 15:43.87
Over in Kenya at the HATC we hear that Starbucks and Moses Tanui did a marathon gym session of 2-hrs 39-mins…And out and about -- New Paltz was great, two hours of running marks my longest run of the year by quite a stretch and after the run I had a beer with Norman Goluskin who is the VP of the Mohonk Preserve Board at his house… Norman is a long time member of the CPTC and was recalling days when they used to go up top NP for the weekend and do death runs.. “Sid (Howard) had to beg tourists for food a he was so hungry on one long run, shortly after he took a nap on the route…” And Norm also is on the Board of the NYRR, now retired he spends 10-weeks of the year in Italy & Spain -- not a bad little plan!
The latest Shoe4Africa race scheduled for September is in Keberigo, Kisii district.Results from Urban in the UK, May 7 Edinburgh
10K Road 1 Fabiano Joseph (TAN & shoe4africa) 28:38, 2 Simon Arusei (KEN) 28:44, 3 Juan Carlos de la Ossa (ESP) 29:25, &
women-- 1 Jelena Prokopcuka (LAT) 32:25Suneet is doing all he can to avoid intervals on the track, “Oh woe is me...fractured ankle from rock climbing at Red Rock canyon this weekend :( My foot, ankle and lower leg are swollen up like a balloon! At least I already have a spare crutch at home! If what happens in Vegas really stays in Vegas so maybe I can leave behind my injury before heading back to NY?…”
Another injured is the Pan-Am Silver medalist Bruce D. “Things are busy here as normal and I am injured. Real drag, but I suppose it is an occupational hazard in the life of a distance runner.”
AOL has this horrible habit of shutting down, losing all your current work on line, then restarting and flashing *Success!* on your screen as if you are supposed to be happy! Happy?
Had coffee with Peter on Sunday, to get there I was cycling down First Avenue and there was a huge street fair, so I had to cut across onto Lex (avoiding all the holes in the middle of the roads and the taxi’s who were avoiding the holes whilst keeping an eye out for music stores as I wanted to pick up an elusive CD), then onto Broadway where there was another flippin Street Fair, so I used the same tactic to cut down, but I landed on Mercer (Cobblestones) and of course it had to be the day I had no air in my tire.. Well it was worth the arrival -- Peter was telling me about living next to the Cuban Embassy or Mission as it was known, “Yes, there were broken windows to wake up to” and showed me his new matrix like cyber book that he has developed.. Well it was also the 5-boro cycle day so there were drones of bikes downtown, so I tried to avoid the masses and used a different route to get back uptown -- well I surely lost all the bikers and nearly sent myself down the Brooklyn tunnel too. I got lost in Chinatown, I kept on looking around trying to find a recognizable building to aim for, but alas & alack nothing to see.. But it was a sunny day so getting lost was not a probbo. Tip number one ride next to a police car who has his windows down and is playing Al Green -- people move out of the way for the police, tip number two -- cheap camping; a human can easily fit inside the trunk of a Pontiac, it is dark and peaceful in ‘there’ and makes for solitude in any area of high light and noise when needing that quick road side sleep-spot. I saw Rima in the road, she was telling me I should get a dog as I look like a dog person… hm, the steps of logic.
Vienna results -- Japan’s Tomo Morimoto with 2:24:33, and Morocco’s Lahoucine Mrikik, in 2:08:20.. Berlin’s 25KM -- Kenyan’s Peninah Arusei won in 1:26:25 & Patrick Musyoki 1:14:08 winning.
05/05
John Kelley - a Boston winner and legend, at breakfast.
On the 3rd of June Shoe4Africa Run Morocco Women’s Only 10k race will take place!
I was eating lunch and not looking today -- gallops of guey New Paltz honey slid like slurping sludge and is now stuck like molasses onto my keyboard making typing quite an issue.
Derartu Tulu has withdrawn from Sunday's BUPA Great Caledonian Run after being involved in a car crash. Jelena Prokopcuka, is the fave for the 10K Scots run.I was at the Parker Meridien on 57th ST the other day and happened to ask one of the staff where the bathrooms are, “The Blue Balls Sir.” I was like, “Wha?” He repeats “Blue Balls.” Then I noticed hanging above the bathrooms are actually blue lit balls -- go figure.So the Do Not Feed The Pigeon sign has not deterred the woman who calls me the Devil (When I told her not to throw food in front of my runners who were doing hill repeats story). Now she simply gets up super early and empties a bag of garbage food on the street for the slobby birds. I mean have you ever seen a starving pigeon in NYC?Looking forward to tomorrow -- my serious run of the week; up to New Paltz with Rapido for pain, suffering, and tears… no, I love it.Denise phones me up to tell me she’s getting advanced vibration equipment for her gym.The power of the web -- Tim emails to say he is going to Tanzania in August for some project and wants to help with the school development mentioned yesterday as he is currently, “I am currently working with the TZ ambassador to the UN, Augustine Mahiga and his wife, in the early stages of establishing a girls secondary school in the Iringa Region.” Kool.CARSON, Calif. (May 4) – Two-time Olympian Marla Runyan and Alan Webb, the American Record-holder for 2 miles, will compete at the adidas Track Classic on May 21, organizers announced today.
Chubbs and I kicked off the marathon training program last night -- what a hoot! We had a great time -- firstly I discovered if you sit on the wall overlooking the reservoir facing West then lean over backwards so you are looking upside down toward East 90th ST you get these real psychedelic views of runners moving upside down -- funny to see how much the upper body remains stationary compared to the legs, then the tree foliage, and the upside down bikers.. Too much! Like being on drugs -- not that I would know anything about that though.
We have a very friendly bunch and have gone hi-tech with the coaching (we have walkie-talkies), so if you happen to be in the park and hear Moonbeam & John Travolta chatting (as there is quite a bit of interference) that is us. Walking back with Cara to the Store we saw the groupies hanging out waiting for Scarlett Johansson who is filming across the street on Madison Avenue, and low and behold who was there but Rice n’Beans. But back to the class - nice to see the ‘old’ faces like Toni, Mary, Kathy, Parks, Adam, Pat, with the new ones.. Whose names I don’t know yet(!) and Will from Aberdeen who is now four years into his green card applico’ and lives down near Paul K at Rector PL (and works in the same banking institute).. Minnesota used to live there, and LQD too -- wow, names from another era.
04/04 Steve Cram, "Of course the Olympics can still produce good viewing figures, but in those days you could get a 10 million audience to watch a meet in Nice on a Tuesday night," he smiled. "There's no way you could do that these days.
"I recall running against Ovett at Crystal Palace on a Friday in September of 1983 after I'd won the World Championships - it was the last meeting of the BBC's contract and they delayed the news to beam out our race live.
"We have a £10.5m-a-year budget geared towards the London Olympics," Steve told me.
"That's £60m-plus to be spent on all sports between now and 2012 on a medal programme. "It's the first time central government has given significant funding, and we'll be measured primarily by how well we do as a nation at the Games.
Funny though -- Cram, Ovett, and Coe all came from a non-funded system -- If Britain seriously wants medals under its current structure then I suggest blank passports and a cheque book aka Qatar.
On May 20, Craig Mottram of Australia will attempt to defend his Healthy Kidney 10K title--and go for the course record of 28:10, set by Paul Koech of Kenya at the 1997 Trevira Twosome.Down on the track is the night for the Smokey Banditos -- it appeared there was a raging fire over in Queens; we had billows of plastic smelling s’moke s’cuttling over the East River… Arthur again arriving a tad late, Luiz Mr consistent buttoning it up, Nancy off on planet 10, Robin from England burning along himself, Robin from the Harriers working well like a fishing line pulling them in, Masterblaster driving and kicking great, Jamie -- welcome back, she ran great, Rick - first run since Boston; back on track is the way to go -- looking smooth already, Kevin The Commander, Kathy G smiles on all the miles, Cruiser not liking the smoke, Rebecca moving to DC, Mike out in lane three for some reason, Scott hanging well, Cindy doing the 8‘s and looking smooth, David Trackman with his sore leg, ChuckyChina looking recovered at last and clean shaven, Paul not on the boil, Tom back from Jamaica, Erin from the Flyers earning points as she worked out last night too at the Flyer workout - ran great, Peter2 - ended up on the ground in a horizontal stance -- welcome back to speed work, Denise “I‘m wearing my daughters clothes, too much laundry“, and Shawn the maverick, hm Michelle too though she ran a great final 400m… Evelyn HotRod turned up 45-mins late.Following track I had dinner with Rick at Café Greco, been there for lunch before, but never dinner -- it is on 2nd and 72nd. If you are looking for a good fish place with grilled fresh tasting fish this is the place. The cheesecake though was missable and the wine (Californian CS) was great. The service was good, left alone but served. The bread was a little manky.. But the main thing is that we had a good chat. I took the Halibut, and the quality was fine. The salad (mushroom & Spinach was a bit ropey) was mundane with the dreessing undressable.Okay -- here is a proposal from Tanzania -- If anyone has any ideas please let me know!
Toby, can you post this, "TANZANIA SPORTS ACADEMY/Profile/Description of the Organization.
1.Name of the School: Tanzania Sports academy
2.Type of the School: Secondary School, Boys and Girls.
3.Age group: 14 -22 years.
4.Status and location: The School is located in Arumeru district, Arusha region, although the School is in Arumeru district Geographically but it is only 6km from Arusha Clock Tower.
5.Academic Structure: The School is conducting 8 subjects which are enough credits to enable the Student to sit the national form iv examinations. Since it is the special school for the talented athletes, where from the scientific points of views, the athletes needs enough time for training, we have opted to teach six Arts subjects which are English, Physical education, Kiswahili, Geography, History, and Civics, and two compulsory subjects which are Basic Mathematics and Biology.
6.Our Students and Talent Identification programs:
The student recruitment is done very careful and under a long term process of Development, sporting the talent at around the age of 12 years when they are at their Primary School year 5. Since we did not have the Inter primary and Secondary School competitions for the last 10 years, we have our own system of talent identification which is
to Organizing the shorter distances of the road races as well organizing the track and field events , for the young athletes in targeting for the young athletes. Our age group is between 12th to 18 years for this program.
Before we had the School programs, we normally take these young athletes to our athletic club HQ which is also in Arumeru district, but that was in small scale, and what we are putting in place now is program in a large scale.
7.Talent Identifications Key sponsor: Shoe4Africa of New, the New York based company has been in the front line since 1999 to sponsor our children races around the Country by donating the used running shoes to the winners of these races, and is from these kind of races where we identified the talent of the athletes Like: Christopher Isegwe, The Marathon Silver Medalists, Francis Naali and Samson Ramadhani, Commonwealth games Marathon champions 2003 and 2006, Fabiano Joseph, Wolrd Champion of half Marathon, John Yuda, World cross Country Silver Medallists etc!
8.The Aims and the objectives of the School:
-Our main aims is to provide the education for the young talented athletes while we make sure that their talents are also developed to the maximum and through the scientific methods.
-Gives our athletes special education in the HIV/Aids awareness, this is also in the top of our priority lists.
-Arrange the Scholarships for those best athletes so that they will get the higher education as well as advanced training facilities.
-Teach the Olympic spirit at the early ages.
9.Means of living for the athletes/students in School:
Since these runners are coming from a very poor families in the villages, the means to support them is totally depend on the Sponsors at this stage. And since this is still the new program, almost everything is bowing to me and my family, and off course our elite athletes also contribute some few support to help their young brothers and sisters. The costs for one athlete per Month is $ 77.5, and this covers accommodation, meals, books, tuition fees, medical care etc!
Where we are/What we have:
Right now we have 1 class of 25 students/athletes, one Hostel to accommodate 32 athletes, and a small dinning hall, small Kitchen and small Staff room. These structures is located in a small place of half an acre. But we have also another separate piece of land which is about three acres and is located 6km from Arusha City Centre, and that is where we want to move the new School!
10.Issues in priorities: The urgent need for the School.
-Sponsors for the individuals or group of the students (Very High Priority)
-.Expansions of class and Hostel for form two class –Second year (The construction materials is need and not a Cash) (High Priority)
-Construction of administration block and HIV/Aids Clinic. (Materials needed and not Cash)
-Books, Pens, pencils etc.(Different type of these items needed for form one and form two students)
-Laboratory apparatus (Items needed and not Cash)
-Laboratory Chemicals (Chemicals needed and not Money)
School dispensary (Medicine needed)
-
12.The future plan - The direction we want to go:
Our future plan is to build a bigger School which will accommodate between 400 to 500 talented athletes/students. We believe that by having the mentioned above numbers of athletes, Tanzania will at least be represented by around 50 or more athletes to the Olympics games, technically this also means higher possibilities to win the medals."
05/03
Article on….“The German Athletics Federation (DLV) said on Monday it was impossible to erase controversial records set by athletes who were part of the state-run drugs programme in former East Germany (GDR). "The experts have shown that erasing these controversial records is not legally possible," said DLV president Clemens Prokop. Ines Geipel, a doping victim of the GDR state-run drugs programme, was one of four athletes to set a German record for the 100m relay, which has stood since 1984.” In the SA Press -- Victim? Victim?? Amazing, like the Billy The Kid syndrome -- Give Geipel 100-yrs and she’ll be a folklore hero.
Next on the Museum Hit List: “Goya’s Last Works is the first exhibition in the United States to concentrate exclusively on the final phase of this artist’s career. It is the third in a series of critically acclaimed presentations focused on Spanish art at The Frick Collection…” All to be seen on the Upper East Side of NYC.. We read, “The show focuses on the years from 1824 to 1828, which Goya spent in Bordeaux in a community of fellow Spanish exiles seeking refuge from the absolutism of Fernando VII…” Not a bad place to disappear to Bordeaux, he had a smart idea there. Apply Now!! Halle Berry says she wants to adopt a child someday.
At the gym the industrialists were bemoaning the Labor Day strikes over in LA.. “Can you believe the chicken plants all shut down?” One of the guys in the steam room owns a nationwide trucking business. Lots of racist comments flying around.. But I kept quiet for once.. Partly as I was zonked out and zapped after doing a run -- I actually left the house to go running and realized that I did not have running shoes on my feet (that bad these days), so I had to go to the gym to put some on (rather than go back home).. And at the gym one old man was saying that he is going to do the ING NYC Marathon this year to celebrate his birthday, “I’ve done three before but since I am hitting Eighty this year….” Amazing stuff.
At the store -- Anil finally is able to sit back down again after his.. Operation.
She has been married 21-times??Bernie, who is featured in the NY Runner’s latest edition, calls me up, “I’ll see you for breakfast tomorrow for an hour.. Then I have to be off to the Mandarin for a ‘do’ as I am sitting at Mayor Bloomberg’s table.” Yeah right, where is my invite?Sylvia Mosqueda of the Orginal fat Tuesday’s AC became a Master last month -- she will be hoping to do the Stormin Norman @ Freihofers.Last night I had a fun night with the Flyers, we had relay night. Alem was out there looking spiffy coaching his group in a tie & a suit “I have to go to a speech,” Georgio with his troop of followers, Bob Glover leading the NY runners, and then there were the Achilles! When we were doing Boot Camp Hakan from the Achilles (who is blind) was joining in with the jumping jacks, and that started others from the club too -- we had a whole array of movements and twists, like a waltz of running plyometrics -- so nice to see many of the athletes stepping up too, pushing hard and going over the mark of expectations. Everyone seemed in a superdooper good mood last night (even when I added a bonus mile leg to the workout when all thought it was over) -- there was some good energy hovering in the air (sometimes you wonder what is at the edge of the lake), and to top that after I went to the zappo bar on the Upper West Side with Estupendo Rapido as the dusk scuttled to the dusty night, and the hint of a summer arriving looked perchance to be actually true.05/02
One of the great legends himself, and the first athlete Brother Colm ever coached.
The Cardinal 10,000m; Always a fast winning time here -- Great race by Webb and one can guarantee from this race at least one of the top three will run a marathon this fall (pending injuries), with another one adding to the list probably for the Olympic Trials for Beijing.
1 Alan Webb Nike 27:34.72
2 Dathan Ritzenhein Nike 27:35.65
3 Anthony Famiglietti Adidas 27:37.74… 10 Dan Browne Nike 28:27.71 (good race for Dan Browne to start back again, good to see him back in the fast lane). Of course there are four Americans who could have defo been in the mix in this 10,000m should the timing have been different; Meb (Boston), Abdi, and for one Khannouchi must be able to run a 27-min 10k -- obviously not a week after a 2:07:04 London but, and then there is Bernard Lagat who I think could come very close to the US record. Anyway superb running.I met Chris Stewart (the younger, not he who was third in NYC twice in the Seventies) who has just returned from his Honeymoon in Jamaica. He is getting ready for the Healthy Kidney which is the next points race. “I ran lots on my Honeymoon, my wife wanted me to…” Well there‘s a first. I am listening to Sade at the moment -- I remember this artist from when I was younger, back in the eighties, so I was surprised to see a ‘recent’ album -- and it sounds exactly like the old one! Either that or Antonio Carlos Jobim.I had a massage with Pierre -- my first in a flipping long time, nigh on two years. I was laughing so hard I nearly fell off the bench. Anyway talk about another chapter of ‘can you believe’ Pierre stayed in the exact same place in Culebra as we did -- what a small world(!) Did I do this, do that, yes, yes… that too.. That’s when he was not knocking my body and killing me, “You’ve put on a bit of weight since last time” “Toby, this isn’t yoga, keep still.” Man it was painful. I put my inflexibility down to a bad diet -- it is the worst right now, I can not remember the last time I ate a single vegetable -- My food groups are Raisins, Breads and Oatmeal, and a piece of fruit with coffee, red wine, and beer… Mind you my honey does have buckwheat in it if that counts for anything. I think I will begin my new lifestyle tomorrow! I have to train for a race, Spring Lake in New Jersey coming up at the end of this month, if not sooner. I am figuring out that it is a bit too late to begin the training plan that is never going to happen, so I might as well try to clean up the diet and get on the fumes of a good plan…. Y‘know what Joan Benoit says, “East Pasta, run faster” -- that‘ll work. It is only five miles, I thinkI will survive. The last time Chubby saw me run he stopped me and said, “I am going to give you a big gold stopwatch, retire and become a coach -- it is for the best.” Sage advise.On the phone with Mostafa, the coach of Catherine Ndereba -- Catherine is doing a half in Japan in two weeks, they love her over there, she is a big time celeb, and now does most of her racing in the land of the rising Sun.The 2006 London Marathon paid out $841,500 in prize money -- peanuts when you think of Golf.At Penn they hype the USA VS. The World type competitions - Give me a break, it is any foreign athlete who happens to be at the competition.Maratón Popular de Madrid had Banuelia Brighton Katesigwa (nee Mrashani), TAN 2:34:54 winning, she who ran at one of the Shoe4Africa events with 2:07 man Joseph Ngolepus, KEN 2:11:30 CR coming in for the men. Florence, sister to Sally Barsosio, was second woman -- good to see she is still running well. I missed seeing her this year in Kenya though it was nice catching up with Sally.
Race Against Racism 5-K Lancaster, PA had Mouhaine Outaleb, MAR 14:30, 2. Joshua Kemei, KEN 14:33 & #3. Mohammed Ar-Ar, MAR 14:58 the husband to Asmae L. and
#4. Mike Mad dog Mykytok, USA/NJ 15:49 75 still around and shaking his leg -- first woman - Eunice Chepkirui KEN 16:19Denise tells us the new hot spot for long runs is the Pocono’s. She was with Johgn Henwood who says he is running Grandmas, the race not the trade.Meanwhile I am waiting for a delivery from Fed EX, for two days the status has been “On Truck awaiting Delivery” -- What is this truck doing? Curb crawling in the West Village?Archives:--Previous pages start --
HERE.
Anyway the big news yesterday in running was the signing of Paul Tergat & Catherine Ndereba for the New York Half at the end of August! Two of the absolute biggest names in the sport coming to the streets to run like demons for the $10,000 prize. Who else will be on the line??
We hear from Jorge of CT, “Results of the Cali (Colombia) Half marathon. Trhis is a tough one! Males Overall: 1) Julius Gidabuday, Tanzania, 1h 03m 33s
2) Araya Aregot , Etiopía, 1h 03m 36s
3) Paulo Alves D’Santos, Brasil, 1h 04m 49s
4) José Nascimento, Brasil, 1h 05m 13s
5) Julián Berrío, Colombia, 1h 05m 06s
Shoe4Africa Farida Makula wins a National Title at the 1500m!
From Ariel, We talk about them, then we show them -- here’s The Jamjar from Kenyah and Sharon from ZimZim (ps those are not spelling mistakes, I think Kenya should add a H, and Zimbabwe should should be zimzim land). We read, “Sharon is doing very good at this moment and Magdeline is just for tworaces in Holland (last weekend 10k race and coming weekend half marathon organized by Gerard). Both ladies, Jason and Luc will run this race. After that race Magdeline is going back to Germany.” Thanks.
Out West --Ambesse Tolossa of Ethiopia won the ninth annual Rock 'n' Roll Marathon on Sunday. Tolossa, 27, covered the 26.2- mile course in a time of 2:10:08. On the women's side, Kenya's Alice Chelangat captured her second Rock 'n' Roll title, winning in 2:28:21. Meeanwhile over in Holland
Zwitersloot Dak Run 10-K 1. Nadia Ejjafini 80 BRN 32:42
2. Flomena Chepchirchir 81 KEN 32:43
3. Genet Getaneh 86 ETH 33:34
4. Sharon Tavenga 83 ZIM 34:14 (of the HATC team!)
5. Magdaline Chemjor 78 KEN 34:27 (Jamjar’s comeback as a supermom and the men 1. Jason Mbote 77 KEN 28:31 (Who also used to be at the HATC in Iten and is now with Gerard who emailed to say he is coming from Holland to help with the Shoe4africa race in Kenya in December!)
2. Raji Assefa 86 ETH 28:52
3. Charles Koech 83 KEN 28:55
A press release in English. It is a big thrill for me to get this man to be the Guest of Honor at our Tanzanian Shoe4Africa race because I remember reading and hearing about his efforts as he raced against the great Miruts Yifter at the Olympics when he won the Silver. So funny that all these years later.. Who would have thunk it. How life turns out.
